Hive Versus Hive
by Impossible Numbers
Summary: Seabreeze wants nothing more than to stay at home and relax with his family. But after his lucky escape from the Big World of the ponies, he's gained some unwelcome attention, and not just from overawed Breezie neighbours...
1. The Foragers

From the window of his toadstool home, Seabreeze watched his fellows gathering over the pond and breathed a sigh of relief. Even when someone knocked on the door, his growl of frustration was quickly cut off. After all, what did he have to worry about now? It was already decided.

"I will get it!" he shrieked; his partner Zephyrine was nearest, but there was no way he was going to stand behind her while some fool gave an embarrassing speech. Besides, he had a good idea of who it might be.

The door swung aside, and Twirly almost darted backwards when she saw his stony face. For a moment, Seabreeze blinked in surprise, but the stone buried his face again. He could see the others a few yards away, all of them staring in his direction with splinter-like ears cocked.

"You're sure we can't make you come?" warbled Twirly, wringing her twiggy front legs together.

"I am staying with my family," he said with practised ease. "That is the end of it. You can take care of yourself without me there to hold your hoof."

Behind Twirly, the few faces glanced at each other with worry lines on their brows. He knew what was going through their tiny minds. Ever since the pollen-gathering, he'd been seeing those glances a lot.

The rest of the swarm were sliding bubble-blowers or limp balloon skins into pouches and sheaths around their waists, but they too glanced up at him from time to time. Behind the swarm, the wall of dull grey stone was shimmering, and the dot in the centre began to grow. As Seabreeze peered past his fellows, he could just make out the flash of white foam, and hear the rush of swashing water. Along the edge of the growing circle, the air crackled with pink sparks.

He glanced up at the haze of orange and pink lights melting into the sky, and nodded. It was right on time.

Despite himself, his own limbs – though warmed by the dark cotton sleeves of his coat – shivered, and he could almost imagine them handling one of those bubble-blowers right now. His gossamer wings shuddered with the flight not taken, and since they were wide and splayed like a butterfly's, the shudder had finished at the base long before it had finished at the tips.

"Please?" said Twirly. She pouted in an attempt to win his sympathy, which he recognized at once and which therefore won no sympathy at all.

"How many times do I have to say it? No, no, no!"

Seabreeze almost stamped a hoof before he remembered Zephyrine was watching him. _Calm down, Seabreeze. Remember what happened the last time you lost your temper_.

"But…" he said, and he tried a smile, "I do not think you need me again so soon anyway. You are each pretty good on your own. In fact, why not take a break once this Forage has finished? You would get a nice rest, and someone else could take their turn next time. We rely too much on the same few Breezies anyway."

Twirly nodded hard enough to leave her antennae a blur, but there was a small smile nervously venturing out of her stubby snout. That was another thing he was noticing more and more; other Breezies fervently agreeing with him. Up till now, they'd either just weathered his storm until it passed, or fled at the first sign of gales. No one had actually _agreed_ with him, not even to keep him happy.

Seabreeze raised his voice and tried to smile. "Good luck to you all! I hope the breeze keeps your spirits high!"

A swarming murmur of agreement met his ears. He grinned and waved cheerily until the door eased shut, and then wiped the lot off his face and groaned with relief.

"I think it's sweet," said Zephyrine when he turned to her. "They look up and listen to you now. Poor Twirly used to shake so much whenever she tried talking to you."

Behind her on a flat pebble was a piece of card the size of a Breezie shield. She was cooing over the baby's shoulder, and little Saltshaker watched as a globe-like insect waddled across the floor.

_I wish she would do something about those Springtails,_ Seabreeze thought irritably. _They multiply like crazy. Besides, I hate having to ask every five hours_.

"Why did _you_ not go?" Seabreeze drifted over and sat down at the pebble, sitting opposite her. "You used to nag me all the time about 'duty' this and 'honour' that and 'look, I'm pregnant and I'm still going out into the Big World' everything. Now, I cannot remember the last time you went on a Forage."

Saltshaker gurgled, planted both front limbs down, and missed the Springtail entirely; it had been too quick. All three of them watched as it sprang to the ceiling.

Zephyrine shrugged and rose to pluck the Springtail off the domed ceiling. "The Big World isn't so great. Fly here, pick up some stuff, fly back… When it's not trying to kill you, it's dull, dull, dull."

"It is our _duty_," said Seabreeze with a rebuke in his tone of voice. "If it were not for us, this world would have fallen apart long ago. _Do not give that to him!_ You have no idea where it has been!"

"Oh phooey, my mom used to let me play with these things all the time when I was that age, and it never did me any harm. 'ere 'oo go, den. 'oo's a gwabby widdle poppy seed, den? 'oo are. Yes, 'oo are." She rubbed Saltshaker's belly until he gurgled with delight.

Seabreeze grinned with daggers in his face. "Is that why it gave you that mite plague last time?"

"Those weren't mites. Those were just itchy spots. _You_ got some too."

"I got them off you. We were _both_ younger and dumber then. I, um… wanted to show solidarity."

Zephyrine squeaked a laugh. "You mean after you found out you had it, or after you went off and sulked for three days?"

Seabreeze's grin softened. "It was before _they_ found out you had it and before _they_ made you have your first bath in a year."

"Not that there's anything wrong with that," she said, so calmly and serenely that he quickly glanced at the ceiling and sealed his lips. Zephyrine was to hygiene what water was to a pampered Persian cat, but he still had flashbacks about the last time he brought it up.

A snap of a spring, and Seabreeze ducked as the Springtail, which was the size of his head, shot past and ricocheted off the wall behind him. Saltshaker flopped forwards and crawled on his belly over to it, but Zephyrine still had her skewed smirk aimed at her partner.

Both of them turned to face the card. Square lines crisscrossed its surface to form a grid – they'd both engraved the lines in with a cactus thorn one afternoon – and little carved sunflower seeds lay scattered across the pebble's surface beside it. Seabreeze felt his mind unclench. As he placed a hoof on each seed and scraped it across to one of the grid's cells, he dimly remembered that Zephyrine hadn't beaten him in weeks.

"I'm right, aren't I?" she said, patting him on the shoulder. "You don't like going out on Forages any more than I do."

"Why does that matter?" he said with a careless shrug. He didn't look up. "If the ground fell apart and the sky blew away, and everyone asked why, I could not say 'because I dislike fetching stuff'."

Even as he spoke, his gaze shifted towards the window, where Breezies were flittering past and giving each other last-minute cuddles and kisses. Suddenly, this little game seemed like a chore.

_I should be out there with them,_ he thought. It had nothing to do with duty; he could feel it in his splinter-like bones, and in the way his popping heart sped up at the thought of seeing the Forage from the inside, instead of seeing it from the outside.

_No, you should be in here,_ said his own peeved voice. _You are part of a family. Family members do not abandon each other and rush out for two trips in a row, just because everyone stares at you in awe._

_Which is ridiculous anyway._ He hadn't been the _only_ one of the famous Last Minuters; almost two dozen others had survived and returned from the Pollen-collecting Forage too. That was what they'd been _called_. Usually, if any Breezie left the return journey to the last minute, then they never came back and everyone assumed they were dead. In theory, they could've come back whenever the portal reopened, but then in theory the moon could turn into cheese.

This one time it had turned out differently. And of all the Last Minuters, he just had to be the one everyone fawned over. Even the other Last Minuters – Twirly, for instance – looked at him as though he'd cut through a hurricane.

_All I did was shout and swear and nearly get stung to death by bees, _he thought. Yet even as he did so, a flicker of pride lit up inside his chest, and no amount of scorn or irritation could drown it.

Finally, the sunflower seeds were all in place. Strategies and tactics crowded into his mind, shouting for attention while he examined the card 'board'.

"You can go first," he said with a smug grin. "Since you will just keep losing otherwise."

"How nice of you," she said, returning with a sly smirk. "Since you'll need all the thinking time you can get."

This sort of thing was frowned upon in real matches, but part of the game's fun was in needling the opponent. Zephyrine tapped her chin and flexed her antennae like itchy fingers.

The instant she reached down, he stood up and said, "How about we watch the Breezies go this time? It will only take a minute."

"Seabreeze! Don't get up like that! I almost got the hiccups again!"

"Ah, you are soft as a marshmallow. Let us watch from the window. If anything goes wrong, this might be the last time we see some of our friends and neighbours."

_That is a lie and you know it!_ said the same hectoring voice from before. _No one has ever been lost in years. The ponies and the other creatures have taken care of that._ After he passed Saltshaker, who was trying to lie down on the stunned Springtail, he squinted through the glass and tried to ignore his partner landing heavily on his back and shoulders like a lead cape.

Beneath the shadow of the doll-sized palace, the Breezies hovered and fanned the air with their oversized wings. By now, the portal had swollen to the size of a pony's head, and two brave souls ventured through it. _Scouts,_ muttered his memory without prompting. _I hope they find the griffons where they should be, ready and waiting._

Even from here, he recognized the brown feathers and yellow beaks on the other side. They were new griffons this year, and if their size was any indication, they were young chick-cubs. Always the most punctual and eager-to-please. The two scouts returned at once to wave the sign for "all good"; Seabreeze recognized Hugglenut and Milktears from their yellow and blue manes.

Old gossip drifted into his memory. He wondered if the pair of them would get together during the Forage. After all, that was how he and Zephyrine had met. Both of the scouts moved aside to clear the passage before he remembered. Neither of them were going this year. They had other plans.

With a cry of delight, the swarm poured through the expanding portal. Cheers rose up from the toadstool homes and from the brown, mossy rooftops of the birdhouse dwellings and from the palace. Their friends and neighbours waved and blew kisses and danced while the Forage piled up around the pink sparks.

After a while, Seabreeze grunted and wondered if it'd be rude to turn back to the game. Behind him, the baby giggled and two Springtails smacked off a wall. They were multiplying already.

Once the last of the swarm darted out of sight, other Breezies rose up and covered the entrance like a net, eyes narrowed and looking out beyond the pond and the castle and the toadstools to the hillock range on the horizon. Seabreeze sighed. Sentinel duty. He'd have to take a turn up there with them one day. At least it wasn't today.

"One more ingredient," murmured Zephyrine in his ear as she peered out, "and then it's World Harvest Day. I can't wait to get the family together again. It'll be spectacular this year, I know it. We've still got those Firecracker Fireflies from the Winter Forage."

_Relax,_ he thought. _Stop being such a great stick-in-the-mud. No one has tried anything in years._ Yet Seabreeze was the sort of Breezie who hated reassurance, because one word was always lurking nearby: "nevertheless…"

"Those silly things?" said Seabreeze, who hadn't so much as smiled when the swarm left. "We ought to stop bringing back Big World souvenirs. This is not the Big World. That is why the sentinels have to watch the portal in the first place."

"But they're safe," said Zephyrine. "Now, are you going to fume out the window, or do I get to kick your butt at Hive Versus Hive?"

"It will all end in tears," he said gloomily to the windowpane. "You just wait and see."

He turned around and got hit in the face by a Springtail, much to his son's delight.


	2. Guardians of the Gate

In the still air, Seabreeze winced and forced himself not to shiver. He could almost feel the tendrils of magic crackling behind him, and imagine the pink sparks scraping through the air towards his flowing mane.

It hadn't been a good game. His mind was in another world, and his heart had been somewhere around his hooves. In any case, Zephyrine was no pushover.

To his surprise, he didn't care. Hive Versus Hive was just a silly way to pass the time.

Overhead, the sky was midnight blue. In the Big World, it would've had a bulbous moon casting a silver sheen over everything, and it would've made him feel like he was being watched. Here, there were reassuring pinks and purples where the nebulae shined with stars. No moons on this side of the world divide.

Only the silhouettes of the toadstools and the palace broke the shining sky. Below, the pond reflected the stars as perfectly as a mirror, in spite of the inches-tall waterfall trickling into the small ripples of one end.

His mouth felt sticky. Seabreeze scanned the village again, and he caught sight of Saltshaker's bedroom window, the glass gleaming slightly under the starlight. It was going to be his son's first World Harvest.

A growl cut into his concentration. He patted his stomach and fished out a few grains of pollen from the basket by his hip. They were a bit crunchy, but he could feel the tingle of magic on his tongue, and when he swallowed, his insides fizzed and bubbled. From his tail to his head, he shivered with delight.

Something dark flitted across the purple. Above and below him, the other Breezies chattered and pointed. _Why did they not just check?_

"Nothing to be afraid of," he said, squinting. "It is only a ladybug."

Beside him, a flame flickered into life and the orange-tinged glare of Jingo Belle emerged from the darkness. "It could've been a Metal Beetle," she said, pupils darting back and forth. "There was one up here last year. It was around this time too!"

"Do not waste the fire!" hissed Seabreeze. "We barely gathered enough from the Badlands. Make it last. And I know my ladybugs from my Metal Beetles, _thank_ you."

Jingo Belle shot a glare at him, but she did put the flame out. Seabreeze returned the glare, safe in the knowledge that the returning darkness obscured it, and then he turned back. He would never forget all the times Jingo Belle's shrieking had scattered swarm after swarm. At least the Breezie had been banned from any more Forages; a swarm scattering out in the Big World was committing suicide.

They didn't need light, anyway. Seabreeze concentrated, and his sensitive face and twitching antennae filled in the world around him as though it were under sunlight.

Dozens of Breezies hovered all around him; he could feel the slight curls through the air as they disturbed it just by being there. Cheeps and chirps slid easily through his mind while it scanned each note as clearly as if it were a solo among silence. Scents and perfumes that would pass by a bigger nose bumped and punched and caressed and tapped his smaller one. All his other senses were sucking in the world around him, taking it apart, and gorging on it. Nothing would escape his attention.

_Zephyrine should be going to sleep soon, _he thought. _I wish I was too. I hate being stuck out here in the cold. Not that I am going to tell her that_.

As though waiting for that thought, the door to his own toadstool house creaked open and he saw her slip an upturned thimble outside. A blush went to his blue cheeks. She was putting out the milk again. Or rather, she was performing the Putting Out Of The Milk. The way she went about it, it earned the capital letters.

Part of him really, really wanted to argue with her again for old times' sake, but another and much louder part of him gave the first one a clip round the ear. So what if he thought it was a ritual past its prime? It made her happy, did it not? And if she wanted to hang little wooden horseshoes around the house, that was her business.

Besides, it used to mean something once. Across the years, he could still hear the stories his mother and father used to tell him, usually in a doomed effort to make him go to sleep. Breezies used to live in the Big World once, they said. Not like ponies did, out and about and proud and unafraid, but in the corners and under the floorboards where they would be safe. The Breezies used to make the horseshoes for the ponies, since their small hooves could work into even the tiniest scratch or around the finest nail, and in return the ponies fed them with milk.

Seabreeze never found out why, ask though he did. In his older years, he assumed the two species had struck a bargain at some point. It wasn't like Breezies were totally helpless, and ponies did have soft hearts.

_No, stop drifting off!_ The nagging voice was back. _Pay attention, you no-good daydreamer, before you embarrass yourself! It is not as if it could be true, anyway. Breezies cannot touch horseshoes. They are made of_ iron, _stupid._

For some reason, iron made the antennae go crazy. He'd once met a griffon with an iron talon to replace her real one, which had been lost in a fight. Seabreeze and Zephyrine had gathered so much water from the spring that day that his balloons had almost burst. At one point, he'd drifted out of the breeze he was supposed to be following, and the griffon had caught him and accidentally brushed him with the iron talon.

Seabreeze felt his mouth go dry, and he wiped his forehead. It had taken hours before he'd stopped seeing everything and nothing at once. That was years ago, before the Big World types had made things safer, but in the present moment his memory suddenly turned away with a shiver.

_Focus! _His thoughts hit him until he straightened up. _These jokers might miss something._

The slam of his own front door almost covered up the squelch.

Someone must have stepped on one of the moss patches, but he couldn't sense anything else. No strange scents, no slight movement under the glowing nebulae, no further noises.

_Do not start losing it._ He shook his head and glowered at the nearest toadstools. _It is going to be a boring night. It always is. If fools like Jingo Belle should not squeal at shadows, then YOU of all Breezies should NEVER squeal at shadows._

Another squelch broke through his mind. Seabreeze lit his antennae up instantly; if nothing else, it might scare away a creeping insect. Others around him lit up too. Squeaky voices groaned and whispered to each other.

"Go away!" he yelled out, while in his chest his heart threatened to pop through sheer terror. "We are the Guardians of the World Portal! No one else is allowed here!"

Seabreeze waited. When no one else moved, he growled and drifted forwards, feeling the tendrils of magic drop away from his back. The slice of sky that was the reflective pond passed below him. Both his ears were stiff like thorns.

_Maybe it is just a Bull Roach,_ he thought desperately as the glittering moss patch began filling his view. _Maybe it is only a bug looking for green things to munch. Maybe it is friendly._

The unseen creature buzzed.

Intruding insects always had a tell-tale buzz. Flies were sharp and short. Damselflies made a sound that was like being patted gently on the ear. Honeybees droned from all angles and seemed loud even yards away. This one didn't bother with many acoustics, but was simply a bolt of shock and fear that struck through the head and stabbed into the spine. Seabreeze knew that sound.

He yelped as the silhouette darted out at him. Six clawed feet jabbed into his chest, sending him spinning backwards. Sky, darkness, pond, darkness, sky… as he tumbled over, he saw the silhouette zip over and imprint itself on his mind like a kick.

"Wasp!" he yelled, legs writhing in an attempt to stop the spinning. "_Wasp!_"

The swarm closed in, or rather drifted in – under each one's light, their faces seemed to be trying to back away from the shadow – and as one of the antennae passed, he spotted his mistake at once. Not a wasp; wasps didn't have irises or pupils, and they didn't have snouts and jaws with bared teeth, and they didn't have manes like ribbons slicing through the air.

The nearest Breezie squeaked. Both of his antennae snapped together as though suddenly bound. A second later, the poor victim swung through the air, batting away a whole row of his fellows before being flung after them.

Above all, wasps didn't have tusks. These ones were mobile; they flexed and snipped as effectively as pincers. Every Breezie backed off an inch.

Seabreeze groaned. He was going to have to play hero again. Why was it always up to him? Those cowards and dummies could've mobbed the Flutter Pony by now.

He saw its gaze snap to the pink rim of the portal.

"Oh no! Quickly!" he shouted, and his four legs braced for a scuttle and a leap. "Grab its legs! Quickly!"

The wall of Breezies became a hemisphere. One or two obediently snatched at its legs, but the Flutter Pony shot out of reach. The shudder went through the ranks. Any second now, the thing would bypass the lot and head straight for the Big World.

Seabreeze shrieked through the air and tackled it. He didn't dare open his eyes. Under his grip, it thrashed and flexed its limbs so vigorously he could feel the counter-flex through its body. Its skin crackled as joints moved against chitinous armour. Then, it bucked and threw him over its shoulder.

Never attack one from the front, he remembered. That was where they could get you.

And then he heard the one sound he'd been dreading all along, the one that he'd only been told about as a yearling and which had still seen him struggle to go to sleep every other night. He could even feel the creature's abdomen quake with the effort. The sound went: _shhhhhrrrrrrck_.

The creature whirled him round and he opened his eyes in time to see the stinger thrust at his face.

Sheer terror propelled him through the dive. Everything went to the left, and the turbulence bumped against his neck. It had been millimetres.

Then the Breezies piled on top, and the writhing creature was lost to an avalanche of colours and gossamer. Seabreeze could still hear it buzzing and see the lower Breezies shuddering with the effort of holding it, and then both stopped at once.

He was standing on the edge of the pond, and the pile of Breezies grumbled and babbled and squealed between him and the pink circle of the portal. His frantic heart began to settle. His wide eyes narrowed.

_You nasty little creepy-crawly! How dare you try to scare the daylights out of me!_

_Try?_ said the hectoring voice in his head.


	3. Against the Intruder

Seabreeze took a deep breath and watched the orange glow seep into the purple and pink of the sky. If he cocked his head and narrowed his eyes, he could imagine he was back at his home, looking through the arched window of the toadstool instead of the arched window of the palace. Finally, he turned away and drifted down.

This chamber housed nothing particularly exciting. All the walls and the floor could have been carved from sapphire, and though there were darker swirls and teeth-like blocks in the manner of pegasine architecture, the room was otherwise utterly empty of decorations.

In the middle was a flattened pebble, and standing on either side were two Breezies. A hundred more hovered around the margins as though wondering what they were doing there. Seabreeze joined them.

Trussed from neck to sting with grass-blade rope, the Flutter Pony glowered at the Breezies and clicked its pincer-like tusks together. From time to time, it hissed and spat at them.

"What a creepy-crawly," murmured Hugglenut.

"That's just the language of the Flutter Ponies," said Piffle, and he sniffed his pointy nose at the thing. "I remember meeting them years ago when I flew east to the Honey Swamps. It's not too hard to understand them. Flutter Pony talk isn't too different from ours."

The other Breezies leaned closer. Not that anyone kept score, but it was said by many of the elders that Piffle had ventured out into the wilds more often than the rest of the swarm put together. He certainly spoke as though he had; confidence radiated from him like bristles on a hedgehog, from his stiffened legs to his spiky explosion of a white mane.

"So what _is_ it saying, then?" Seabreeze said, and he remembered too late to keep the bite of impatience out of his voice.

Piffle gave him a cool sideways glance, but nodded all the same. "She isn't saying much of interest. It's just a lot of insults and threats."

"Why would it want to break through the portal?" said Jingo Belle. As usual, the wide-eyed Breezie was vibrating, though whether out of fear or the thrill or sheer anger, no one could tell. "Doesn't it know how things work around here?"

"It's a _creepy-crawly_," insisted Milktears in tones usually reserved for words like 'monster' or 'killer'. "Who knows what crazy idea got into its head?"

"Here's a crazy idea: why don't I _ask_ her what she wants?" said Piffle irritably. "I can speak Flutter Pony just as well as I can understand it."

Several of the younger Breezies murmured amongst themselves, but the elder ones nodded, and most of the rest just shrugged. Seabreeze folded his forelimbs and waited for the buzz of talk to die down. He had no intention of stepping in. They could figure things out on their own, for a change.

Coughing to clear his throat, Piffle began a series of hisses and spitting fits. At once, the Flutter Pony fell silent and focused on him, staring and measuring its chances of a strike. It was just possible, listening to the speech, to pick out the odd word that rang a bell, but it was like seeing shapes in a pond after someone had fallen in. Most of it was nothing more than stuff that was always there anyway. Not a lick of sense came out of the whole.

When the Flutter Pony hissed and spat back, Piffle wiped his brow with a forelimb. _So you do not know everything,_ thought Seabreeze, and he was surprised to find himself disappointed by this. Piffle was one of the few Breezies who didn't go to pieces at the first sign of difficulty.

The old Breezie coughed again. "She says, though this isn't her exact wording, 'How dare you tie me up as if I'm a common thief. Don't you know who I am?'"

Everyone around the chamber began shuffling their twiggy legs. If it wasn't for the duty, all of them would've been outside enjoying a sip from the pond. Long years of dipping in and out of the Big World, however, had rubbed off on them. Until a couple of years ago, this room used to be just somewhere nice to visit whenever they felt like it.

Seabreeze shuffled along with his neighbours. Not for the first time, he wondered if they were becoming too much like the Equestrians. The younger Breezies talked endlessly about the fancy castles and well-dressed nobles and gigantic cities, but then they were also told endlessly not to wander off or get distracted. That was _pony_ life. Breezies simply gathered the ingredients and left as soon as they could.

From a quarter of the way along the perimeter, Gusto floated over their heads. It had been her idea to turn this room into some kind of testing place, and now she was nodding her head as though mentally ticking items on a list.

"Tell her," said Gusto in a clear voice, "that she knows why she's here and that it's not important who she is. She broke the rules."

Nervous glances were passed around the circle. "Rules". It was another one of those things they'd picked up from the ponies. Up until now, there had been no rules, not as such. Breezies did what Breezies did. They drifted through life like dandelion seeds in an updraft.

"What rules?" said Hugglenut, frowning.

"_Our_ rules." Gusto spoke in the same clear, slightly patronizing voice of one explaining something to a child; it was earning her a few glowers from the elderly. "No one but a Breezie can go through the Ring Portal. She also refused to listen to us, and she attacked the Breezies _watching_ the Ring Portal."

"Those aren't rules," said one of the elderly Breezies, and Seabreeze recognized him as Woodchip. "That's just how things are. We don't have to have rules for things like that."

_It would be like having rules for the sky,_ thought Seabreeze, who was nodding along with his neighbours among the crowd.

"All the same, the Flutter Pony broke them. We need to teach her a lesson."

Piffle shrugged and passed on the words to the captive, making the Breezies near him draw back from his flying spittle. In reply, the Flutter Pony focused immediately on Gusto.

Seabreeze was impressed. Normally, the youngster was as unflappable as a pebble. Yet the Flutter Pony's glare was as hot and intense as a dragon's breath, and a wince and slight curling of the antennae betrayed a few cracks in the Breezie's armour.

After a few seconds of spit flying across the room, Piffle hummed in interest and translated: "Since you don't know who I am, I will tell you for your own good. I am _Tailblade_, the Queen of this world. I have no care for your so-called rules, and I come and go as I please. Let me go free, and I will show mercy for your mistake. If not, then this is treason, and I will deal with you as harshly as I can."

Echoes died away around them, but the Breezies waited for a while, faces set in ice. As one, they drifted over to the closed double doors as though to bar the way.

Jingo Belle stepped forwards. Whether through a dawning joy or through sheer nerves, she was grinning widely.

"She's nothing but a _creepy-crawly_," she said, and even _she_ sounded afraid of her own words despite the grin. "We can't let her go, or she'll come back and try something even more dangerous. We can't trust anything she says."

Looking at the Flutter Pony hissing and spitting some more, Seabreeze found it hard to argue. The stinger flexed around the base. His memory still saw it cutting through the darkness to stab the middle of his forehead.

What made it worse was that it happened here, in their home world. A stinger belonged in the Big World, where the insects alone were bigger and meaner, and the air never stayed still and could easily knock someone down with a puff. Even there, the Breezies rarely met stingers; the griffons and the pegasi swatted things like bees and wasps out of the way if they came too close.

"Maybe, uh, we _could_ reason with her?" said Milktears.

"No. I agree with Jingo Belle," said Gusto. "The best thing to do is to lock her up where she can't threaten us or break any more rules."

"But she can talk," said Piffle. "And that means she can think."

"Is that a problem?" If Gusto had worn glasses, she would have peered over them.

From the other side of what was now a half-circle, Zephyrine caught his eye. Seabreeze thought he could see every emotion in her eyes – relief, anger, fear, joy, confusion – but it had only been a second, and he glanced away from the sheer pressure.

He hadn't told her yet what exactly happened. He wasn't sure how to begin. The Breezie sentinels only watched the portal to push away dumb beetles or curious worms for their own good. Getting stung in the face was the stuff of myths.

_I am not surprised they are frightened,_ Seabreeze thought, watching the ones at the back edge towards the door. _This is not some stupid, blundering creature, and it is not a friendly fellow being either._

Piffle coughed and curled his lip in distaste. "No," he said. "There is no problem."

Both Gusto and Jingo Belle nodded. To Seabreeze's surprise, so did a few other Breezies. Everyone else was trying to duck out without being seen, a tricky task after the first two dozen had left, but at the very least they weren't arguing. Everyone else turned away their faces.

"Then it's settled," said Gusto with a shrug. "We'll put her in a room out of the way, and give her some food from time to time. I think that's the best way to solve this problem. Now she can't hurt anyone. Would someone help me move her down to the dungeons?"

As soon as the tide went out the door, Zephyrine and Seabreeze were side-by-side, trying to ignore the hissing and spitting that was now much less sophisticated than anything Piffle could translate. Their heads drifted towards each other, meeting with a gentle tap.

"I do not want to talk about it," said Seabreeze, taking care not to disturb the air around his mouth too much.

"You must have been very brave," she whispered back.

"No, I was very lucky. The others were brave. I thought they were going to fly away and hide, but they stopped the Flutter Pony."

Zephyrine raised an eyebrow at him, making her long lashes swipe at the air with the slight jerk. "And who tried to stop her first?"

"I think this is going to get worse and worse." He blushed at her narrowing eye and pulled his head away; he knew a leading question when she threw one at him. "Gusto is talking like a pony. There is too much of this pony-mimicking going on."

Inside his head, a part of him gaped in outrage. _But it is all true,_ he spluttered to it. _Oh, it may be OK to learn a lesson once in a while from ponies… once in a while… but if you cut any one of us in half, the one will have the word "Breezie" written on their heart. That means we do not do anything nasty or tough or brave or strange. We follow the breeze, and our magic comes to us. If we start wandering off the path willy-nilly, we will lose._

Despite this, the face of a pegasus drifted across his mind, raising an eyebrow at him doubtfully. And then there had been the way the Breezies piled on top of the Flutter Pony. True, it worked only because there were so many, but Breezies were famed for their fighting skills. Ponies pointed and said, "They don't have _any_ fighting skills!"

Aloud, he growled in frustration and said, "This is so stupid! I wish I had gone with the Foragers! I know what I am doing with water. It gets collected and carried back. What is so hard about that?"

Zephyrine glanced ahead at the straggling Breezies drifting round the corner. The corridor echoed with each flap of a wing.

"It seems to be over now," she said with a shrug. "So yet _another_ thing blindsides us. That happens. Why not forget this one oddity and carry on as normal?"

"Hm. _Maybe_ you are right. Maybe I _am_ worrying too much."

"That's the spirit. You need to relax and find something to make you feel better. After all, we're Breezies, not ponies." She smirked and added, "_We're_ the smart ones, remember?"


	4. The Cleanup

Outside, cotton candy clouds floated on the sea of sky, turning everything pastel. Seabreeze watched from the window of his home, twisting his lips in disapproval.

The bank of the pond was a drop of roughly three inches, a good diving height for a Breezie. On his side of the pond, he knew the toadstool houses blended in with the daisies, threadgrass, and mossy humps, while on the other the palace melded with the exposed brown slope of the hill, resembling a gingerbread house beside the world's biggest chocolate cake. The regular view of the palace always reassured him and steadied his breathing, but he saw that magnificent building every day, and the familiar spirit of Awe in his expanding chest was competing with the even more familiar spirit of Annoyance.

He could see one or two Breezies watching from the palace windows, but most of his fellows were lying on the toadstool caps or on the mossy edges of the pond, watching their fellows in turn. Others on the bank wiped water-resistant oil and wax on their limbs and on each other's bellies. They were going pondskating.

Waterfalls ran through the middle of the palace in steps like blue cushions on a throne. As he watched, a Breezie whooped, sliding down each fall before the oily and waxy legs hit the pond, and then spinning like a skater across the surface. All around him, others were dancing or chasing each other or simply holding their legs stiff and letting the slight currents float them along. Splashes were the theme of the day, combined with laughs and chatter and the swish as spindly forelimbs sloshed back and forth.

Finally, his disapproving look went up to the pink portal. No one was there.

Growling, he gave the bamboo bucket next to him a backwards swipe and marched over to the door, sweeping his wings along the ground in his haste. Only when his two front legs were on the door handle did Zephyrine give a meaningful cough.

"Look at them!" he said. "They have left that portal wide open. Anything could wander in or out. They are the most selfish, unthinking –"

"You keep this up, and you're going to explode one day," said Zephyrine soothingly, who was lying on her own crumpled wings with a sleeping mask over her eyes. She had a small daisy wreath wrapped around her head. "Let them have their fun. Nothing's going to happen. That Flutter Pony was a fluke."

Beside her, Saltshaker was napping on his side. Angelic as he seemed, his snore was a saw grinding on a violin string.

"Someone needs to take charge," Seabreeze muttered. "Terrible things will happen if no one is there to look out for them."

"OOOOOhhhhhh no, you're not getting out of chores that easily." With a sigh, she snapped the sleeping mask off and flipped forwards. "It's sad how many times you try to wriggle out of this."

"I am not wriggling out of anything!"

Zephyrine gave a small "I don't believe that for a second" smile. "It's your turn to clean this place, and we shouldn't keep putting it off between us, you said. You _promised_."

_Oh dear_, he thought, _she_ has _got you there. But she must know that, compared with guarding, a promise like that is not so important._ Merely thinking that made him squirm. He'd never broken a promise yet, up to and including "I will get home safely with the pollen, I promise."

"AAAAAwwwwww," he groaned. "Do not make me choose. This is not something I can drop. Could _you_ do the cleaning this time?" His lip pouted in a silent plea.

"No. It's all very well guarding a gateway to another world to prevent a horrible tragedy, but dear, you do that all the time now. Shake that boring routine up a bit! It's a nice day. Exactly the sort of day to be spending outside where it's fresh and cool, eh?" She gave him a wink.

"Fine," he said, groaning the groan of those backed into a corner. "Then _you_ will go on sentinel duty, and _I_ will clean. So long as _someone_ is taking it seriously!"

That worked at least; her eyes lit up at the prospect of getting some warm sunlight on her. She'd always been an outdoors type.

"Hmmm," she said for the look of the thing. "Throw in a truffle dinner tonight, and we have a deal."

"You mean I have to go truffle-hunting too?" Horror filled his mind with a menagerie of pincers and claws and tentacles. Even as a much more adventurous child, he'd stayed away from the darker sides of the far off hillocks; only the bravest went that far, and unfortunately truffles just sprouted up wherever they liked and never thought about the poor Breezies. "Am I being punished for something?"

"What? What's wrong with truffles? They're the tastiest things in both worlds." Zephyrine rolled her eyes and slipped past him to the door. "At least you got your temper back, I see."

Seabreeze fought against the smirk. "You are a self-indulgent little gadfly, you know that?"

"The important thing is that I'm _being_ indulged. Have fun cleaning the corners."

The door slammed. He went back to the bamboo bucket and upturned it. Six thumps bounced off the soft floor. Hastily, he checked Saltshaker wasn't waking up, but the snores continued to strain across his ears.

"Well, come on," he said, prodding the six things one at a time with his leg. "You do not get to sleep until this mushroom is clean enough to eat off of. Or clean enough to eat."

Six cracking black carapaces shuddered. Seabreeze curled his lip and kept a leg firmly ahead of him as a prod. The Cleaner Pillbugs unfurled, exploding with too many white, wavy legs for his liking. They flipped over and, under his prodding, shuffled over to the corner. The front one plucked bits of black dirt from the vertex and stuffed them under its segmented shell; Seabreeze ignored the munching sounds that followed.

It was traditional. If there was one thing Seabreeze could get behind, it was the honest old friend of tried-and-tested tradition. Remembering things like "make sure the pollen stock lasts two years, just in case" or "always wash your legs before eating" or "don't forget the pine branch for the Solstice Dance" was Breezie, through and through. But if tradition was a friend, then this one job was his bad habit of leaving hairs on the carpet. In any case, Cleaner Pillbugs stank worse than the stuff they were cleaning up.

He heard a whoop, peered out of the window, and kneaded his face with both forelegs. Zephyrine was skating on the pond.

_Not her too! Why does no one do what they are supposed to?_ he began thinking, and he was too busy being angry to hear any other part of him trying to correct that sweeping statement. _I tell them why it is important. It is not as if I am bossing them around or yelling at them or calling them names. I want them to understand. And they still act stupid or act badly or do not bother acting at all_.

One of the Cleaner Pillbugs belched, breaking up the red mist that clouded around his mind. Blinking, he looked down and saw the six of them piling over each other to get at some dust bunny. Behind him, Saltshaker gave a snore to rattle the house to its rhizome foundations.

"Do not forget the mess you made last time you lost your temper," he said sternly to the arched window, and he thought he could make out the outline of his reflection. "Do not be rude. Do not go off in a huff. Do not forget to be nice more than nasty. You would not be here if it was not for that nice pegasus helping you."

_And still I am getting angry. What is wrong with me? Why can I not stick with this? What was it Speckleteeny said last time?_

"Honey catches more flies than vinegar," he repeated, frowning.

That phrase wasn't his; the young Breezie had come back from the Fire-collecting Forage with it on his lips, and for some reason it stuck in everyone's heads. Apparently, it was a pony saying. Seabreeze said it a few times under his breath, because he wasn't sure he'd actually believed it the first time.

His antennae twitched.

Seabreeze ignored the scratching of legs on armour as the Cleaner Pillbugs scrambled over each other for a piece of diamond-hard grit. He tuned out his snoring son's endless assault on his ears. Straining harder, he cut out the faint splashes and laughter and chatter and the occasional whoop from Zephyrine.

There it was again: a slight buzzing, as though his own brain was humming from the inside-out.

By the time Seabreeze burst through the door, the Breezies were screaming and rising up like the silent explosion of a dandelion caught in a gale. Everything had gotten darker. The buzzing was everywhere. Soon, the entire air was nothing but one deep ocean of buzzing and humming and whirring and droning.

Seabreeze craned his neck until the entire sky was laid out before his gaze. There were no pastels to be seen. It was darker than night, and filled with moving shadows.

_No, no, no!_ His legs didn't bother waiting for his brain to come alive, and hopped back into the toadstool at once. He rushed over to the wriggling little body; even the legendary snores of Saltshaker lost the struggle against the wall of noise, but the baby's face woke up and contorted into a screeching cry anyway.

"Get out of here!" he yelled across to the Cleaner Pillbugs, but they simply curled up and became black balls rolling along the floor, denting it slightly as they went.

Zephyrine held the door wide open and gestured urgently. Her face was glowing with paleness despite the eclipsing shadows.

They reached an inch before the darkness broke up. Beams of light shone down as though to spotlight interesting patches of ground. Next moment, a body thumped, its six legs bending to take the impact. Both Breezies yelped and backed off.

The first Flutter Pony spun around, tusks clicking over its bared teeth. Two pinpricks strained to pick out their details. Both wings stopped buzzing and became as stiff as a sword slung over its shoulder.

Another one landed behind Zephyrine. By the time they'd rounded on it, yet a third hit the ground next to Seabreeze. Darkness shattered and fell away overhead, but each dot of light now fell on the backs of more Flutter Ponies. On the palace, on the hill, on the toadstools, and on the mossy ground, they soon became a thick blanket and the dots of light pooled together into a sea of brightness, letting in the day once more.

Seabreeze and Zephyrine rose into the air, and immediately a ring of Flutter Ponies matched them. Their massive manes thrashed about under the turbulence of a dozen buzzing wings.

"Who are you!?" shouted Zephyrine over the noise, trembling where she hovered.

"Yes!" shouted Seabreeze. Fire burned in his chest. "Who do you think you are!? You should not be here bothering us Breezies! This is our home!"

Around him, the chuckles themselves sounded like buzzing, though of a softer timbre. Although the mouths smiled – wide enough that he could count teeth – the pinprick pupils drilled into their heads until both Breezies had to look away.

Beyond their circle, other Breezies cowered within huddles or hovered like planets with rings buzzing around them. And still there were more Flutter Ponies, some dotting the air at random, and the rest crisscrossing the sky as living chains.

To Seabreeze's surprise, the thought of hitting one came to him. Breezies didn't even like _thinking_ about fighting, but this thought popped into his head with no shame or worry. In vain, he forced his mind to focus on more traditional responses like running away.

As soon as he turned, however, the nearest Flutter Pony darted forwards, cutting him off. The pair of tusks clicked and clattered. Their owner seemed to be struggling to chew his own tongue – or "her tongue", or "its tongue"; Seabreeze couldn't tell – while its eyes narrowed with the effort.

"Go." It gagged on its own word, but there was no mistaking the word itself.

"You can speak Breezie?" said Zephyrine, drawing closer to Seabreeze.

"Yes." It coughed out the word and punctuated it with a click. "Go palace. _Our_ home now."


	5. Caught in the Web

The centre of the Great Hall cracked and bulged. A gigantic heartbeat pulsed against it. Ripples wiped across the floor, up their Breezie legs, shaking their wings and manes. The Breezies huddled against the grand entrance, which stood wide open.

Seabreeze sat on the floor, trussed and smelling faintly of treacle. He strained to pull the bindweed apart, but yellow slime oozed over his legs and the bonds tightened instead. Beside him, Zephyrine flapped her wings as hard as she dared. Two Flutter Ponies grabbed a wing each with their tusks. She stopped flapping.

"What do you want!?" shouted Seabreeze. Flames rose inside his chest as he struggled. "Stop ignoring me!"

All the Breezies screamed when the floor smashed open. Fleshy pink worms popped out – no! Seabreeze spotted the snout behind them and heard the snorts. Among the "worms", pink nostrils like the eye sockets of a skull twitched and quivered. A rounded head, brown as soil, curled up and turned round to face them. Shovel-like forelegs ploughed through the edge of the pit, knocking dirt and stone fragments across to them.

One of the Flutter Ponies stepped forwards and patted the thing on the snout. It pulled a little more of itself up, revealing its armoured chest and the first two spindly legs. Spikes ran down each leg, the teeth of a saw.

The Flutter Pony hissed and spat at the thing. When the creature chirped and shot back down into the hole, Piffle grunted and his eyes lit up.

"My word," he said. "That's a Star-nosed Mole Cricket, isn't it? There were only supposed to be a hundred left in the wilds."

Zephyrine cocked her head. "Can these creatures speak to us? I'm starting to feel left out."

"They're tracking someone." Piffle sounded hopeful. "Maybe, if they find whoever they're looking for, they'll leave. It could be Queen Tailblade they want."

"Don't call her 'Queen'!" said Jingo Belle, whose eyes were darting to and fro in a futile effort to find escape. "It's an invasion! A raid! A massacre! They're going to take us prisoner and drag us back to their swamp!"

Gusto winced at the gaping hole; from a long way off, echoes of bashing shovels and crumbling tunnels came back to them. "They'll never get away with this! No one can just come and destroy this place. Wait until we get them in the testing chamber. We'll…" She mouthed the words, trying to work out the phrase. "We'll throw a book at them."

No one dared to say anything more. Down below, the dungeons spread out under the pond and under the hill and even, some said, under the distant hillocks. They used to be known as the catacombs.

Breezies didn't like going down there, but they all knew the stories. The soil around the portal had magical properties. Nothing placed within it would age. Time stood still down there. It was the perfect place for storage.

_If the invaders find out what is down there…_ "We need muscle," whispered Seabreeze.

"Why whisper?" said Piffle airily. "They can't understand Breezie. It took me weeks to learn their language. We should be OK."

"But the ones who caught us could speak it." Zephyrine glanced nervously at the two gripping her wings. Gossamer could tear all too easily. She was barely breathing.

"So did the ones who caught us. They could barely speak any words. Neither of our tribes have much contact with each other. I think we should be safe."

Another Flutter Pony stepped forwards. Breezie recognized the type. Not the face, of course, but the flint inside each eye, the way the lips flickered slightly, the tensed, claw-like rake of its limbs. He'd seen body language like that from Zephyrine when she'd been younger. This creature was one flicker away from a pounce.

"If it sets your mind at ease," said the Flutter Pony crisply, "I can understand every word you say. Any tricks, and I will feed you to the Mole Cricket."

Unlike the other Flutter Ponies, her tusks were straight and never clicked. Seabreeze stopped struggling. He wished the universe would go back to when he was prodding pillbugs. Suddenly, a future full of that was inviting.

"Why are you destroying our palace!?" he snapped; even now, the flames of outrage roared and pushed his head forwards, so he had to crane his neck at her. "This is madness! When every creature in the realm finds out, you will not have a place to hide! This is enchanted ground! You are supposed to show it respect!"

The Flutter Pony blinked until the echoes died away. "Oh. Are you the 'Big Breezie' of your swarm, then?"

Flames rushed into Seabreeze's cheeks. "You have no manners at all! What a disgrace you are to this beautiful world! Everyone else has learned how to live peacefully, and you come along, scaring everyone, bursting into our homes –"

"What is your name?" The question cracked like a whip.

"Seabreeze, shut up," whispered Zephyrine. "You're only making it worse."

"Seabreeze. I see," said the Flutter Pony with a triumphant smirk. She ignored the glare Seabreeze shot at his partner, who had the decency to blush and look away. "My name is Dragon Lily. I'm tracking a runaway – you may have heard of her – called Tailblade. She is our…" The creature glanced up as though checking an answer on the ceiling. "It's hard to translate, but I think 'Voice' would cover it."

"Voice Tailblade?" said Gusto.

"The actual word is 'Vox'." Piffle turned to the hole in the ground. "You only had to ask."

An outburst of hissing and spitting ran across the gathered Flutter Ponies. Dragon Lily responded in kind. She seemed suddenly angry, but that might have just been the way the language was spoken.

Seabreeze watched the rain of spittle and listened to their chitter-chatter jabbing in his ears, and willed himself to take a deep breath and close his eyes and think. Deep in his chest, the flames still flickered, but they were dwindling. He had no idea where Saltshaker was.

_I never wanted to shout at others. They make it too easy, though. Maybe I need to try harder and not forget that they are living beings, too. They might be secretly as scared as we are._ He coughed, silencing the ruckus and drawing the attention of all eyes and antennae.

"We do not want any trouble," he said as politely as he could. "Please try to understand us. Miss Tailblade was trying to get through the Ring Portal when she should not have done so."

A flicker passed through Dragon Lily's eyes, but he could've imagined it.

"We were only trying to stop her from going out into the Big World. It is our duty to keep her safe, just like we keep everyone else safe." Behind him, Jingo Belle began to whimper. "We all decided that the right thing to do would be to keep her here so she could not sneak out. Miss Tailblade is not in any danger."

This didn't get any response. Nervously, he tried a slight bow, flaring his Breezie wings slightly as he did so. "I am sorry for any trouble we have caused you. If you promise to leave us peacefully, we will show you where she is."

Nothing but the distant crashing of the Mole Cricket punctured the silence. He could feel every gaze plunging through his mass of a mane to stab the back of his neck. Tusks clicked together.

If he was right, and body language never lied, then Dragon Lily would nod and smile and, if he was really lucky, mean every gesture. A whole Flutter Pony hive could keep a tighter watch on one of their own easily; they'd only have to learn their mistake, and it was unlikely to be repeated if they had enough power to snatch a whole Breezie village in minutes.

The stillness was getting to him. No one looked remotely ready to congratulate him yet on his kindness. Perhaps he'd said something rude about their Vox without noticing. Perhaps they were making their minds up for an attack.

Risking a glance round, he saw his own Breezies looking at him in the same way. Piffle took a step away from him.

_Why?_ he thought irritably. _That is exactly what we did do, and it is exactly what we want. We have always kept the Ring Portal safe since the beginning. Everyone knows that_.

Gusto was turning red. He must have trodden on some pony rule she'd picked up, and by the looks on the Breezies' faces, she'd passed it around. Pressing into each other tightly, Hugglenut and Milktears shivered head-to-head. Breezies ran from danger until they had to go on a Forage, and then only when there was a pegasus or griffon nearby. Jingo Belle gaped at him as though he was mad.

Only Zephyrine was beaming at him, but one of the tusks tightened and the smile ducked back down quickly.

Finally, Dragon Lily's legs slackened. She went from preparing to pounce, straight to towering over him.

"I'm afraid that is impossible," she said curtly. "Honourable as your aims were, no one is allowed to harm a Flutter Pony. To harm one of us is to harm all of us. The hive does not bow down to you."

"But do you not see!" Seabreeze tried a step forwards, forgot about the binding, and smacked his chin on a fragment of stone. Underground, the Mole Cricket rumbled through a passage, and he felt every tremor through his jaw. "We have children and elderly Breezies! We were protecting Miss Tailblade –"

"Vox, Mister Seabreeze," snapped Dragon Lily. "Vox Tailblade."

"Did you _want _her to get lost in the Big World?" The fire roared in his chest again, propelling his words on the updraft. "If we did anything, we saved her life! You should be thanking us!"

"Arrogant fairies!" She was ready to pounce, tusks almost touching his eyelashes. "This is not _your_ world, and we are not _your_ slaves. We will not be told what to do by butterfly ponies like you. We will retrieve our Vox, and then we will decide what to do with you Breezies. This talk is at an end."

With a rumble, the star nose rose out of the pit and the Mole Cricket chirped at the ceiling. Dragon Lily spat and hissed at it, and then did the same to the Flutter Ponies. Half of the creatures rained down on the hole as a squad, obscuring the Mole Cricket, and then Cricket, Dragon Lily, and Flutter Pony squad were gone. A faint humming from the black pit died away.

"Evil creepy-crawlies," whispered Jingo Belle, sneering at the ones staying behind. "They need to be stopped."

"What did you think you were doing?" said Gusto at once. Seabreeze rolled over to see her craning her neck forwards at him. "There's a right way to do this."

"Rules again?" sighed Zephyrine, and her wings were released. She massaged them back into shape. "They're not gonna help us. And don't you talk to him like that! It was worth a try. If he'd gotten through to them, they would've left us alone."

Both Hugglenut and Milktears gave a bark of a laugh. They were still trembling. Neither of them seemed to be seeing anything on this plane of existence.

"Well, _I_ thought it was mad," said Piffle. "Don't you remember what Tailblade was like? A whole hive of that could be capable of anything."

Zephyrine rounded on him. "I thought you said they could think. You were the one trying to stand up for that intruder."

Piffle narrowed his eyes. "I made a mistake. The Flutter Ponies I met on my travels must have been a different hive. They didn't invade villages and towns, and they certainly didn't treat me like this."

"Then they're not naturally evil, then," said Zephyrine triumphantly. "There must be more to this than we're seeing –"

Seabreeze, who'd been lying silently on the ground and watching them go back and forth, cleared his throat. "Zephyrine, you do not have to defend me."

She spluttered, gaped at him, and opened her mouth with a glare in her eyes.

"No! Listen! They are not going to be nice to us if we ask. I made a mistake, too." He hung his head, more to avoid looking at her than to avoid looking at the disapproving glares he was getting. "If niceness does not work, then toughness will."

"But –"

"So you'll help us?" said Milktears. Her voice was on the edge of cracking. "You were one of the Last Minuters. You must think of something! Anything!"

The others greeted this with interested murmurs. For the moment, his idiocy was pushed to one side.

_That is how Breezies work_, he realized. _That is how we live. If we see a shadow, we move for the light. We think we are being watched, so we duck under a rocky overhang or hide in a knothole. Most of all, anything bigger than us is either something to flee from or something to stick close to. Maybe the early Breezies did not make a bargain with the ponies for milk. Maybe they forced us to do it. After all, we had nowhere else to run to_.

_Now they are looking at me like I am some pegasus caretaker. It is Fluttershy all over again! I am the only Last Minuter here. I am not a real Breezie. I am not right in the head. This is madness_.

"We will…" he said. "We will…" _Think Breezie. Forget all that stuff Fluttershy said. Think Breezie, not pony._ "We could send someone through the Ring Portal to get help. There are griffons out there who could help us, and they could take care of these _wasps_ easily."

The Breezies skewed their lips and glared at the guarding Flutter Ponies. It had the right shape of a Breezie plan…

"But no one's ever ventured out during the wait before," said Hugglenut. "No one who's come back, anyway."

"Drive them out!" Jingo Belle vibrated with excitement, licking her lips and dancing on the spot. "The Last Minuter could do it. No one's ever returned at the last minute before, until Seabreeze did it."

"No! There are _rules_," insisted Gusto, but no one cared to listen.

Zephyrine stared at Seabreeze until he finally met her gaze, and then she blinked and shook her head. "Forget the rules. My partner is _not_ going out there. He got lucky last time."

"We _need_ lucky Breezies," whined Milktears.

"I'll go with him too," said Piffle. "I'm used to travelling around strange places in this world. Maybe it's about time I tried it in the Big World. Anyway, we don't have a better plan."

"Are you forgetting these?" hissed Zephyrine, nodding at the bindweed dripping with yellow ooze.

"No. 'These', in fact, can be part of the plan, if we can think of one…"

While the other Breezies talked, Seabreeze turned away before his partner nailed him with a glare. This time, the flames burned under his cheeks.


	6. Bringing Out the Secret Weapon

The palace gleamed with the honey smothering it. Flutter Ponies buzzed and crawled from rooftops to base, drawn like wasps to an abandoned cake. From the inside, tusks hacked and sliced at the windowpanes until they fell away with a crash of glass, and those waiting outside wriggled through each hole as it opened up.

Overhead, the orange glow gave way to the familiar purples and pinks. Seabreeze frowned up at it. He struggled once more to pull his limbs out, but only his dainty wings showed. Down to the neck alone, he was free.

A few Flutter Ponies withdrew their mouths from his shoulders, trailing threads of gold. Past his neck, he was caught in hardening syrup, which soon was tougher than concrete.

At least he could still breathe, but nothing below the surface was going to move.

Dotted around him, the other Breezies tried flexing their wings, the only parts of them that they could keep out of the way of the working jaws. Each Flutter Pony wiped a mouth with the back of their two front legs, and then disappeared into the darkness while Dragon Lily and two flunkies came up to them.

"Until you behave," she said, "this honeycomb will remain your prison. My fellow Flutter Ponies will bring pollen for you in an hour."

"What about my child?" said Zephyrine. Her face was pale. "He'll be helpless without us!"

"We don't attack young. Your child is safe with us, living as ours do. If you agree to cooperate," snapped Dragon Lily when she started to protest, "we will free you and you can see him."

"Invading pests!" snapped Jingo Belle.

"This is merely a change of management." Dragon Lily shrugged and about-turned without knotting herself, an impressive feat for a six-legged creature. "Now, I have to deal with Vox Tailblade."

"Planning Equestria next?" Gusto smirked down at her.

There was a faint flash of a snarl before the Flutter Pony's face was composed again. "This is only a temporary measure until we can more fully trust each other. Petty threats won't get you out of there faster."

Seabreeze watched her stride across the moss to the palace. As he'd hoped, none of the Flutter Ponies stayed to watch over them, but then they barely needed to. He couldn't do more than flap wings that were worse than tissue paper anyway, and there must be hundreds of the creatures swarming the palace. The stray gazes of many busy eyes alone could keep them in check.

From the wall of the honeycomb, he could see that the Ring Portal was now as big as the palace. There used to be old stories about that portal; in times of invasion, it would sense the threat and snap shut like a pillbug, never to open for a hundred years.

For their sakes, he hoped it was just a story. This world couldn't survive a hundred years alone. Besides, he always wondered how the story could ever have gotten started. Not from observation, that was for sure.

Also, it was always in "the old days" when that sort of thing happened, according to the elders. Nature spirits walked the world, portals opened and closed everywhere, and young Breezies always respected their elders. It was suspicious to say the least, especially that last part.

Window holes flared with light. Around him, the exposed heads of the Breezies gasped at the sight. Despite himself, the old flames of rage cut through his thoughts.

"They've found the vaults!" Gusto wrestled to free herself, hitting the hardened syrup with chin, head, and crinkled wings. "That's sacrilege! They can't just help themselves to the stores. This time, they've gone too far!"

Soil oozed out of the open front gates and dribbled into the pond. Sparkles crept along its crumbly heaps. Flutter Ponies came out with little flames tickling their antennae but not burning them. Many were smiling.

"This plan," said Hugglenut, straining not to yell with every word, "had better work."

Soon, Gusto was gnawing at the ooze around her. She broke off.

"They can't be allowed to get away with this!" she was shouting. "Those are the Forage stores! It's the ultimate rule never to touch those until it's time for the World Harvest! Don't they realize what they could do!?"

"Calm down!" shouted Seabreeze, and everyone except Gusto fell silent at once. "This is not the time to get angry. Zephyrine, look!"

On top of the tide of dirt, pink grubs wriggled and munched on the clumps. They were too far away to make out, but the Breezies squinted through the darkening air and thought one of the creatures had Breezie wings curled over its head.

Seabreeze heard the gasp. Hastily, he said, "Do _not_ call him over! It looks like she was telling the truth."

"Saltshaker…" Zephyrine's antennae slumped. "What's he doing? What are _those?_"

"Those are Flutter Pony young." Piffle coughed and sniffed. Despite his wide eyes, he seemed calm enough, but occasionally he twitched his nostril; the poor Breezie had an itch, by the look of it. "Before they turn into adults, they wrap themselves in a paper cocoon and sleep for a month. It takes a lot of time to make a Flutter Pony."

Zephyrine smirked and shook her head, swinging her antennae from side to side. "Change of plan. I know how to get us out of here faster."

"How?" said Milktears.

"Watch." And as theatrically as possible with her chest stuck in a block of yellow, she sucked in enough air to pop a lung and threw her voice into a fit of racking coughs. Lights on her antennae flashed on and off, blinding the Breezies who had been staring.

Seabreeze nodded and watched the flashes, taking note of each stretched pause. On its own, and to an outsider, it looked like random bursts. Combined with the cough, it was just one of those things Breezies did when they were sick. Strung together in chains of flashes, though, and to those in the know…

Tiny hooves padded across the moss. Breezie babies loved light shows, and Saltshaker – Seabreeze recalled those afternoons with pride swelling in his chest – was a fast learner.

Out of the gloom, the baby emerged open-mouthed. His eyes reflected the flashes.

"Interesting," said Piffle, but he was the only one smiling; the others either stared blankly or shook their heads in disgust.

"Snookums," cooed Zephyrine, and the baby showed all his teeth. "Silly daddy didn't do any cweaning today. 'oo's a silly, eh? 'oo's a silly?"

Saltshaker gabbled back. It didn't matter that he was talking gibberish. Simply throwing syllables around gave him a giggly delight.

Over the palace, a couple of Flutter Ponies began to spiral down. Seabreeze turned his head away.

"Faster! Someone is coming!" he said.

"Big Shakey-Wakey gonna help daddy do? 'eess 'oo are. 'eess 'oo are." Her voice switched back. "I think he got the message."

To groans and howls of anger, the Breezies twisted their heads while Saltshaker fell onto his front and waddled back into the gloom. Seabreeze snatched a glance at the palace. Both of the Flutter Ponies stopped, hovered uncertainly, and then spiralled up to the rooftops again. They were visible by the glint of starlight on their yellow bodies and stings.

He ignored the complaints bubbling forwards. _I am only doing this because I have to,_ he thought. _It is not me. I should not be rushing around or be treated like I am a two-foot tall giant_.

_Maybe I should not do this. I was just a cranky pollen-collector. I am not a "Big Breezie"_.

_Pretend you are going out again, then. Do not think about what you are really doing. This is just… a game, before we go_.

"I don't know what ridiculous scheme you had in mind, Zephyrine," huffed Gusto, "but I vote we go back to the first plan."

There were murmurs of assent to this. Neither Seabreeze nor Zephyrine bothered to correct them, but simply waited with smug smiles on their faces. Sometimes it was fun not to spoil a surprise.

"Do you know much about flash fire, Piffle?" said Seabreeze casually.

"Better: I've used flash fire, out in the wilds." He flicked his antennae on and off, and the grin cut across his face. "And once in the Big World when I was collecting sparks. What you do is this: you find something to cover the fire, and then you take it on and off again at different speeds. That gives you a basic alphabet."

Up high, Gusto gasped as the words clicked inside her head. "A secret message?"

"Your very own language." Piffle squinted out into the darkness, ears cocked. "I think your baby has got the gist of it."

They fell silent and cocked their ears in turn. Certainly, the babbling heralded the waddling approach of Saltshaker, but there was also the munching of tiny mouths and the crackle of many joints. Armour gleamed under the faint reflection of the golden honeycomb. Then, the young Breezie emerged into the haze of their glowing antennae.

"Good boy, Saltshaker!" said Seabreeze. The baby hiccupped and yawned up at them.

As soon as they entered the light, the three Cleaner Pillbugs snapped to attention. What looked like just a pair of overlong front legs waved as though in a breeze. They could smell the honey.

"What?" said Milktears, lips drawing back and teeth clenching. "What is this? How are _they_ supposed to help?"

Seabreeze, the lowest one down, clicked his tongue and prodded each one with an antenna, though at this point it was more for show. All three of them bashed one another trying to clamber up to the cell, and then they bumped into his face and crumpled his wings by treading on them.

"I think they like you," said Zephyrine with a chuckle in her voice.

He opened his mouth to reply and almost chipped a tooth against a bulldozing head. Despite the bumping, they were munching down to his folded forelegs, which began to wriggle in their own cast. One crawled down his back and scattered glass-like pieces of gold over his mane. Both wings beat a little more strongly.

"Cleaner Pillbugs have the strongest jaws of any creature alive. Give them a few more seconds," said Seabreeze, "and then I will be free."

"Uh oh," said Hugglenut.

They followed his gaze. Five Flutter Ponies shot from windows and rooftops. Unlike before, none of them circled, but made a beeline for the combs.

Under Seabreeze's chin, two of the grubs slithered up to watch the commotion. They were definitely Flutter Pony from the neck up, clicking their tusks and smiling, but from the neck down they were bulbous, deathly pale sacks of oozing and bulging skin. Saltshaker lay down on his belly and watched them, wide-eyed.

"Hurry!" shouted Milktears. "You gotta fly at hawk speed! Go!"

"I am _trying!_" Seabreeze forced his wings to beat harder, making what were little more than two flaps of cobweb do the work of metal rotor blades. Everything in his face was either leaking or threatening to pop out.

Gold fragments trickled out of the comb. One final flap threw him clear, chunks of hardened honey clamped to the bindweed on his legs like handcuffs, and he soared over the shining nebulae of the pond. The air and the cheers behind him buoyed him up. He threw all four legs into a paddle, craned his neck, felt the tingle of pink sparks touch his nose –

A Flutter Pony blocked his way. Odd impulses seized him; he grabbed the startled creature and hauled his body around to throw it aside.

Black dust rattled against his body and tickled where it flowed down the contours. Nothing happened. Then…

He lost all sight, all sound, all sensation, and was suddenly in a void. Everything had been snatched away. Had he woken up from a dream? The shock of nothingness was all he had.

Seabreeze screamed.

When he came to, the icy pool of moss pressed against his cheek. Curled up on the ground, he was shivering. No forceful thinking from his mind would make it stop. Colours swam in front of his eyes, free and unattached to anything until he focused; now, he focused on the six legs before him, which turned dark yellow, and then focused on the heads in the wall – which turned golden – behind it.

"Do you believe we're stupid?" snapped the voice, and his ears fought to focus the words. "Breezies are fey, just like a lot of this world's inhabitants used to be. And we've discovered your weakness."

The six-legged thing before him held a leg up, and he could see black dust cradled between the pad and the claws of the insect foot. Everything in his vision tried to rip itself apart. Knives shot into his thoughts. He winced until it cleared, and when he opened his eyes again, the creature was no longer holding the black dust.

"Lodestones from the northern pink snowscapes," the voice continued. "You Breezies are too sensitive even to things we can't see or hear. You can sense the power from the iron, but it's a lot of power for such a little creature. I scraped _this_ from the lodestones myself."

Then the creature – "Dragon Lily" surfaced in the sea of his thoughts – spun around to address the wide-eyed faces in the combs. "Cross us again, and we will not bother with simple dust. We'll bind you with chains of this stuff. Our terms are more than reasonable. They're generous. Don't turn us into your enemies."

Hissing and spitting punched into his ears. Next moment, Seabreeze was hauled up by the collar. He felt two points poke into his back. Someone was shouting his name, and memory produced the word "Zephyrine."

"As for the 'Big Breezie'," said the one he vaguely remembered as Dragon Lily. She turned around, and both tusks gleamed under the light of what he realized were his own antennae. "I want him to come with me."


	7. Mind Games

Groaning, Seabreeze stumbled along the corridor. Although his legs were now free of the bindweed, they still felt sticky whenever each stride rubbed slightly against his torso.

Two blurs flanked him, waving in a way that suggested a military march. Up ahead, the abdomen of the leader – _Dragon Lily?_ – remained rigid, and only her six legs moved. In fact, she seemed to be forcing herself not to move more than was necessary.

Slowly, the real Seabreeze oozed back into his mind. The Breezie village, covered in Flutter Ponies… Zephyrine and the others trembling under a hundred shadows… a huddle of Breezies wondering whether to throw someone in a room for their own good.

Under his tiny hooves, the wax on the floor tinted the tiles a dirty yellow. He wrinkled his nose at the squelch of each step.

When he passed one of the antechambers, he noticed spits of fire lighting up the corridor, and looked inside. The Flutter Ponies juggled flames or held them cupped in their front claws for examination. One tried to eat a spark, and screeched and spat it onto the floor. It did not entirely surprise him; Flutter Ponies had a well-known interest in fire and were one of the few fey species that would willingly approach it, and even play with it.

When he looked closely, he could see the sparkle in the flames. Piles of soil also sparkled among the chamber like a treasure hoard.

In the middle, an open pit spat up a geyser of the sparkly soil, which smothered those nearby with brown clumps that stuck like mud. None of the flames that were smothered under its wave went out, but simply poked through.

"You should not raid those vaults," he said. "Terrible things will happen."

"Spare me your empty threats. The world will not end just because you're not in charge anymore," said Dragon Lily without turning around. "You'll have your World Harvest. We're not fools."

A monstrous howl echoed through the hole. Seabreeze felt the rumble through his legs. All three of his guard – Dragon Lily and the two flanking him – stopped and turned.

The fleshy worms of the nose shot up first, and then the Star-nosed Mole Cricket clambered out, knocking piles of dirt and unlucky Flutter Ponies across the chamber. It was squealing, its abdomen swiping at anything in the room like a baguette swatting at bees. The quicker Flutter Ponies swarmed over its back. Buzzing mixed with the squeals and the thuds and the occasional cry and thump of a body.

"Your pet looks a little spooked," said Seabreeze.

"My fellows will handle it." Dragon Lily was already moving away. The rest of the party forced themselves to ignore the cacophony, and strode on.

Finally, the grand entrance swelled and towered over them. Brass knockers clanked on the other side. Seabreeze watched the gigantic doors sweep back. He was still struggling to think.

The slit of emerald became a grand room, shaped like the inside of an ancient warrior's helmet. Painted Breezies lined the walls; Seabreeze remembered wandering in here with friends, floating up to admire the swirly patterns on the many wings. Now the curved inner slopes were smeared with yellowy oil and honey. Someone had cut away the windowpane to create an arched hole.

Seabreeze lowered his gaze to the figure in the centre, and gasped. Tailblade was tied up from neck to stinger, exactly as the Breezies had left her.

"Why are you surprised?" said Dragon Lily calmly. She stepped forwards and turned to smile at him.

Both doors slammed shut. Twitching his ear, he heard both flanking guards shuffle into place on each side. Dragon Lily strode over to the flattened pebble and seated herself opposite him. He glanced sideways at the wide eyes of Tailblade, and realized she'd been gagged with bindweed.

_Dragon Lily has her own plans?_ One of her legs gestured, and he nodded and ambled over to join her.

There was a card on the table, and immediately he noticed the grid pattern. All the sunflower seeds had been set up. Somehow, he wasn't surprised to find he was using the dark pieces.

"I found this in your home," she said matter-of-factly. A spasm of rage ran through his face. "Fascinating. I used to think only Flutter Ponies played this game."

"You do not really think we spend all our time looking frail and helpless, do you?" _I might as well play along. Perhaps, if the Flutter Ponies are in a good mood, I can be nice without making them angry. Or a better idea will come to me. But why does she suddenly want me around?_

Beside him, Vox Tailblade grunted under the gag. It had been thorough: even the tusks had been tied together so she couldn't open them, though the result also looked like she was sticking out a gigantic green tongue.

Dragon Lily reached across and placed a clawed tip delicately on one of her pieces. It scraped across the card.

"Flutter Ponies play this game as a way to improve their thinking," she said to the board. "A simple game is like a simple story. It's nothing like reality, and yet the lessons you learn are clear and distilled. Sometimes, it's better than real life."

Seabreeze shrugged and knocked a piece one square forward. "We just think it is a fun game."

_Do not show any feelings on your face,_ he thought; though his gaze was on the board, he could tell she had glanced up at him. _If she cannot tell if you are lying or not, then maybe you can stay safe._

"Why did you want me here?" he said as calmly as he could. "I tried to escape."

"It was a test to find out what kind of creature you really were." Another piece moved. Venom crept into her voice. "You Breezies are all the same. You think you're the bee's knees. Well, _I_ am here to prove you wrong."

"Oh. So that is why you took over our home?" Seabreeze knocked another piece next to his first one. The defence was rushed, but he wasn't thinking hard about the game. It was taking all his effort just to keep his brow from creasing with worry.

He glanced at Tailblade. No longer groaning through the gag, she was glaring at him as though trying to burn his face off with sheer loathing.

"That's one of the reasons." Now, Dragon Lily guided her third piece forwards. "By the way, whoever wins this game gets to decide the fate of our Vox. I personally would like to replace her, but I am curious. What would _you_ want with her, if given the chance?"

Muffled cries growled under the gag. Seabreeze noticed, behind the wide eyes, a slight glistening around Tailblade's temples. He fought harder to keep his face straight.

"What do you want with her? She is like a queen to you. That was what I thought."

"It makes the game more interesting. I have… my own plans for the future."

Seabreeze studied the board, trying to spot the hidden moves behind the setup. A three-pronged attack? She had chosen a piece each from left, middle, and right, which always meant…

He grinned and slid his third piece across. A feint: it had to be.

"You want to show what a hopeless loser I am," he said. "Is this because of the 'Big Breezie' talk?"

"We've heard a lot of interesting stories about the Last Minuters." She moved her fourth piece, still building up a defence. "How you were separated by a leaf falling by. How you sheltered with a pegasus named… _Flutter_shy."

_It was just a coincidence,_ he thought. Aloud, he said, "She was very kind to us. Too kind, if you ask me. We were treated like babies."

_And more fool us, we acted like them._ He gritted his teeth. _They had been so stupid. No one ever thought about the long term. They only thought about food and drink and getting pampered._

Tailblade tried to say something sharp, but only the tone got through.

Seabreeze placed a tiny hoof on a piece, and then pulled back, shaking his head. No sleight-of-hoof. He might as well just punch his way through the front. Another piece was forced towards the enemy defences instead.

"We got held at the cottage until the last minute. Then everyone carried on the journey and we got home a few seconds before the portal closed. That was all there was to it."

Her fourth piece slid forwards, and then one piece on each side went forwards almost simultaneously. Seabreeze frowned as he considered his sixth move.

_Odd. She is still playing defensively._ In his experience, pieces started leaving the board around this point.

"I thought so," she said, but her eyes narrowed. "Some of the rumours were too much."

_Oh?_ Despite himself, Seabreeze made himself shrug. _Tell me what they said! Come on!_

"Do you know much about the Flutter Pony life cycle, 'Big Breezie'?" said Dragon Lily. Tailblade waved side to side in an attempt to wriggle free. "I've seen your son. It's strange to think he'll look like that all his life, instead of developing through discrete stages."

"I saw your grubs." Seabreeze's piece sidled up the edge of the board. Perhaps she was trying to sweep the wall of pieces up in a steamroller tactic. She'd only manage to capture the middle, but that would be all she'd need to launch further attacks, and it could be over quickly if he was careless.

"_Larvae,_" she said curtly. "Not grubs."

"They change as they get older, do they?"

"Yes, in life stages. Every stage is important. Flutter Ponies have to learn how to control the wind, instead of being controlled by it. First, they just eat and drink to build up their strength. Then, they learn how to control their legs in a dance. Next, they become armoured to toughen themselves against knocks and blasts. Finally, and only once they're trained, they grow their wings."

Her piece snapped across the board. Before he realized what had happened, the black dot skidded off the edge and spun on the spot. _The sneaky devil! Why did I not see that coming?_

Staring at the hole in the middle of his defences, he swallowed. "What is this? If you want to show I am a fool, then why here? There is no one watching."

His next move cut across to fill the gap, but as soon as he lifted his hoof, he saw the mistake. The white piece almost snapped on top. Another one lost. She'd punctured his side.

"The 'Big Breezie' is watching," she said, folding her first two legs. "When no one would dare to do it, he left the cottage and fought a hive of angry bees all on his own."

"What?" He glanced up, but her face was much better at being stoic than his. "No, I did not!"

"He inspired the other Breezies to go out and finish their quest. He persuaded the ponies…" Here, a faint smirk twitched over her face. "To turn into Breezies themselves and join him. He helped his fellows to become tough as beetles until they were safely home. He gave a magical flower to the ponies as a good luck charm."

Seabreeze gaped at her.

"Or" – here, the faint smirk stayed – "was that just another story?"

He turned his face back to the game, remembering too late to keep the surge of confusion down and out of sight. The gap in the middle stared back at him. It wasn't impossible to come back from a move like that, but he'd lose a lot of pieces first.

"That 'test' was to draw me out?" he said, frowning. One hoof tapped a piece, still unsure.

Pieces rattled. Tailblade drew back to ram the pebble again, and Dragon Lily, without looking up, reached across and pushed. Gravity blinked for a moment. The Vox gave a muffled cry. Then, she fell backwards with a thump.

"You'll have to excuse Tailblade." Dragon Lily unfolded her legs and almost prodded the board with her tusks. "She thinks that, if a Breezie can do it, so can a Vox. In some ways, she's just a grub."

Seabreeze spotted it. The gap almost invaded his eyes. Zephyrine had tried something like this once, but the trick was to find the needle before it jabbed the puncture. A piece shot across, he ignored the blur of white as his opponent retaliated, and then his hoof jumped to another black seed and rammed it home.

Her first white casualty flipped off the board and tapped across the pebble to a halt. It was like cutting her stinger off.

"You would not hurt a grub," he said. "Would you?"

Unfortunately, she wasn't moved at all. Her next piece cut across, hemming in his pioneer and trapping it among three enemies.

"You think we're the enemy," she said. "But what have _you_ done for this world lately?"

"You have to leave now," he said.

"Why? So everything can stay exactly the same? We've heard about how much Equestria has changed. Strange cities and new machines and better medicines and stronger magics. Yet we never change. You never let us change. We're still stuck in a fairy tale world because you Breezies float in a never-ending daydream."

_Fairy tale…_ Seabreeze tapped a piece and glanced up at the resin-like veneer of the walls. There weren't just Breezies up there. Higher up, the Breezie paintings gave way to Breezie-sized faces.

The black attacker knocked another piece away, and he reached down and flicked it off the board. "You do not know what you are doing! Even your Mole Cricket knows better than you!"

A thrust of her leg took out a defender. "It's just magic brought in from Equestria. We know about magic."

"Do you? Do you really?" Wham! Another white piece shot off the pebble and clattered over the tiles. "Then do you know what the old name for the Ring Portal is? Do you know why it is _here_ and not in your Honey Swamp?"

Dragon Lily reached for her next piece. A flicker of doubt creased her eyes. She scanned his glare for so much as a twitch.

"This is the Fairy Ring," he said.

Behind him, the two guards began clicking their tusks. No language barrier could stop those words from cutting straight into the depths. Their minds sparked into life. He could almost hear them thinking.

"Vox Tailblade is moving on to the next stage of the life cycle." With a scrape, Dragon Lily blocked his piece from coming up the side. Her folded wings twitched. She wasn't looking at him.

"Everyone knows there were Fey Ponies in the olden days." Casually, he flicked his piece into hers, sending it skittering over the tiles. "They danced the circle into life. Did you see the way the toadstool homes curved around the hill? They made the soil rich. They built the hill as a fort. They lived under the ground in the catacombs. They put their stamp on this place over and over and over."

"The old Vox has been Vox for too long." Three legs skimmed the tops of the seeds. Eyes darted from one piece to the next. "Tailblade needs to step down."

"Have you had any Flutter Ponies with strange pains?" he continued. _That was how the other Breezies started,_ he thought guiltily. _I kept telling them it was just a back pain or a stomach ache, but they kept saying it was the Fey Ponies cursing them. I cannot believe I am now_ trying _to get someone to believe it!_

"What kind of Vox leaves her hive to go gad about another world?"

He lost a piece, but another one jumped in to avenge its fallen comrade. Both of them could see the puncture on her side, and unlike him, she had too many pieces at the other end of the board.

"It is Feyshot," he lied. "The Fey Ponies are angry and firing cursed arrows in secret to torment your fellows."

"Powerful allies? Then why," she said, "didn't you Breezies win when we ambushed you?"

"They are no one's allies! We do not control them! We just keep them happy. Fey Ponies do what they like. You must have found the thunderstones we kept in the old catacombs too. Those are proof of their power."

Seabreeze allowed himself a knowing smile. Everyone knew about the thunderstones. They were the remains of ancient Feyshot arrows that had created the first lightning strikes. That was what the legend said, anyway.

Her eye twitched. So she _had_ heard of them.

It didn't matter that they were just pieces of flint from the Big World. He certainly wasn't telling her the Breezies had collected them over the years. Even if she _could_ dismiss the legends as nonsense, she'd have to deal with a lot of Flutter Ponies who couldn't; the two guards behind him would be watching the game and waiting to talk about it to their buddies. And then there were the other fey species…

More white pieces went flying. By now, they were simply going through the motions. Both of them could see the ending coming, and never mind that he lost a couple to a pincer move. Even Tailblade had hauled herself up to watch the board quietly.

"So," he said, and something of Zephyrine's smug smile crept out of his face and rode on his words, "what kind of Vox _does_ leave her hive to go gad about another world?"

Hisses and spits were all he got. Behind him, the guards hissed and spat back. _Now, if guards are just as gossipy as Breezies are, then every Flutter Pony will know what happens next._

In any case, everyone must have known the stories. Whenever someone had a strange pain or a sudden hunger, it was Feyshot. Apparently, Fey Ponies snuck around and shot invisible magic arrows for fun. And they could prove it: see all these strange arrowheads lying around? That's what you get when Fey Ponies create lightning with their special thunderstone arrowheads. See? Thunderstones! Feyshot! There must be a connection.

At least, that was how everyone _else_ saw it. By Dragon Lily's twitchy eye, he could see the stories banding together against her own brain. She only had two pieces left to play.

"There's still the ritual," she said, shuffling one piece forwards.

"The Fey Ponies will be angry with you," he said. "I have seen what you are doing to their home. They like the World Harvest to be exact, and they are used to us Breezies doing it. They do not like sudden change. Even if you get it right the first time, do you think _they_ will care?"

The white piece tumbled and fell off the pebble. She didn't even bother to move the last one.

Her eyes narrowed. "You're bluffing. The Fey Ponies are long gone."

"There is a reason the pieces are black and white." Seabreeze placed his hoof on the seed. The Vox's eyes widened. He could hear the two guards each take a step forwards. No finishing move in Hive Versus Hive had ever been the focus of so much burning attention.

"It represents good and evil," said Dragon Lily, but her voice had sunk into the sullen depths. She was trying, and failing, to lose interest.

"The elder Breezies taught us about the two types of Fey Pony," he said as though talking to a child. "The Light Fey and the Dark Fey, sky and earth, high and low, order and chaos… well, it meant lots of things. The Fey Ponies invented the game as a way to stop fighting each other."

Hungrily, he tilted the piece.

Then he blinked, and woke up.

His hoof rose off the sunflower seed, which rocked slightly on the grid. Coldly, he folded his forelimbs.

"I forfeit," he said.

Dragon Lily frowned at him. "What? Why?"

_Because I am not supposed to be winning or losing. This is not a game. My partner and my son are stuck in the cold, dark night with a lot of scared Breezies who do not know where I am and what you are doing to me. You are not telling me anything, and this is never going to make any of you talk._

_Because I am scared of what will happen if I win._

"Because… sixteen moves back, I made a piece jump over yours but it went a square too far," he lied. "I cannot win fairly now. It is your game. I cheated."

Both his antennae drooped while the guards behind him spat and hissed in excitement, and he lowered his gaze to his hooves. A muffled gasp met his right ear. When he glanced up, he saw Tailblade's eyes shining.

Dragon Lily, however, summoned a thin smile and was once again her stiff, disciplined self. "I thought so. At the finish, your Breezie nature reasserts itself."

There was a cold silence. He could see the daggers in her eyes.

"Yes. I am sorry to disappoint you," he said.

"Oh well." Dragon Lily shrugged, and the daggers vanished. "It was an interesting game while it lasted. For your commendable performance, you may go free. Perhaps we can play again later. Once I find another, more _interesting_ stake."

As he went out, he twitched his antennae and smelled the stench of joy from the direction of the Vox. He didn't dare look around until the double doors slammed behind him.


	8. The Rose-Coloured Ultimatum

Seabreeze waited until the guards prodded his wings with their tusks. It was stronger than prodding his back, as the wings felt every contour of the enamel, and could detect the minuscule slowing and shaking of the jab like pebbles on a mountain slope.

Grimly, he peered down the tube. Breezies didn't bother with stairs and their ancestors had built straight, downward shafts, simply vertical corridors. He floated to the floor below, noticing as he did so the Flutter Pony guards poking their heads through the exit at the bottom. As soon as he touched down, they drew back and clicked and spat and hissed.

_Why are they not sending me back to the honeycomb?_ Not that he wanted to get encased again, but he hated to think what kind of panic would be spreading through the others. He'd been gone a long time. Even Zephyrine might start to wonder how the Flutter Ponies had punished him, or if she was even going to see him again.

Seabreeze steeled himself with a deep breath.

Behind him, the two flanking guards crawled out of the tube and overtook him. They began a long, spitting talk with their comrades. Beyond them, the grand portal doors loomed, and Seabreeze recognized the seal on the front. A green clover stood out as a stained glass decoration, right down to its leafy veins. Breezies were good at getting the fine details on glasswork. Occasionally, the four guards glanced at him. Their eyes were wide.

Brusquely, the two newcomers swung their heads at him in a "this way" gesture. Shrugging, he flapped his wings and followed.

_That Mole Cricket is not the only one getting spooked. Good. They ought to be frightened. I live here, and even I feel funny around the storage vaults_.

He landed and stepped gingerly forwards. As he did so, he noticed a pair of guards watching him from each of the side tunnels. They'd been thorough, then; perhaps every vault in the labyrinth was under Flutter Pony control.

His two new followers peered closely at his wings, and he could feel their antennae darting to and fro. _Well, they are right to be nervous,_ he thought darkly.

The guards stood in a semi-circle behind him, waiting for something. Not that it took much imagination to figure out what. Dents and scratches stood out on the door.

_The fools! You do not hammer away at it! That is completely the wrong idea!_

Feeling strangely cold inside, he stretched his wings forwards and caressed the grey sheen. Gently, he clambered up the glass – slipping once – to hang on to the clover's leaves. Magic tingled through his extremities. A slight wind caressed the secret locks. Seabreeze gritted his teeth and concentrated.

At once, there was a click. The tingling faded. He dropped down and pushed hard with his head, and in spite of its initial defiant creak, the door swung back. _Only a Breezie's gentle touch,_ he thought smugly.

The door eased open, revealing beyond it the vast cave. Seabreeze didn't dare look directly at it, but in any case he'd seen its like a dozen times before. It was simply a hole bored into the earth, with stalagmites and stalactites acting like columns around the edge. Lying in the centre was a vast, sparkling heap of what looked like golden dust.

"Is that all you want?" He rounded on the guards, who to his surprise drew back a step each. "There. You have found our magic pollen. Now can I see my _family_ again?"

No sooner had he spoken, however, when the corridors spewed forth Flutter Ponies. He squealed and ducked as they shot over his head in a humming ceiling of yellow and black. Soon, the hive smothered the heap of pollen and wriggled and squirmed and crawled all over its slopes.

When he rose up again, the four guards were conversing with a fifth, who nodded and disappeared back down the corridors. Things were looking lively once more; the Flutter Ponies began crisscrossing the main chamber, and he guessed they were on all kinds of errands.

_What have I done?_ he thought. _They are looking at me with those wide eyes, and they back off when I snap. But no. They cannot be_ afraid _of me, can they?_

_I wonder what they are talking about. They are making weird gestures like they are moving pieces in front of them, but then they gasp and chatter even more fiercely. I have done something in that game, but_ what _exactly?_

He turned back to watch the hive crawling over his food. Not that he was clueless about all the excitement between the guards, but they weren't going to get any more help from him, and even if he wanted to talk to them, he wasn't as fluent in Flutter Pony as Piffle.

Two more Flutter Ponies joined in the chatter behind him – he wished he could've told them apart – and then he felt a tap on his shoulder. One of the newcomers stepped back hurriedly when he turned around.

"Hello," said the male Flutter Pony, tusks and teeth struggling over the syllables. He bowed his head hastily. "Big Breezie. It is an honour! I am Burningrose. I speak your language and I speak their language. We need to talk now."

Seabreeze cocked his head and peeked at the four guards, who were huddling behind Burningrose as though he were a shield. _Interesting._ He skewed his lips into a smile, which made one of them step backwards.

"Did you learn to speak Breezie from Dragon Lily?" he said.

"No. I was her teacher. She started younger than I started."

"What do you want?"

And now he was paying attention, he was starting to see differences in the Flutter Ponies crawling through the chamber. He spotted a wingless one scurrying along, and then later a pale one with no stripes or wings. Vaguely, he remembered Dragon Lily's talk about different stages.

"The question," said Burningrose, and here Seabreeze focused on his features and noticed a slight gleam on his mane, "is what do _you_ want, Big Breezie? We are here to help you."

"_Help_ me? By invading my home and playing games with me? You must be" – he caught his tongue, stepped backwards, and smoothed down the storm on his face – "very confused. What is going on?"

The first two guards said something. Burningrose stepped aside to bring them into a triangle, and spittle and hisses went back and forth for a few seconds. Here and there, Seabreeze was sure he picked up words like "Vox" and "Dragon Lily" and "Fairy Ring". All the Flutter Ponies present shuffled uncomfortably. Quietly, the two non-speaking guards detached themselves and hurried past him, but not without throwing a glance each. He noticed their brows were shiny.

Seabreeze's… well, translator – he supposed the creature was his official translator now – turned to him. "My friends Confetti Cinders and Inferno want you to know that we mean no harm."

In the vault, the buzzing and crackle of moving bodies was joined by the echoes of Flutter Pony conversation. Dragon Lily didn't need a lot of witnesses, it seemed. He wondered how much the hive trusted each other's gossip.

But then, he remembered Piffle once telling him how all the Flutter Ponies in their hive were sisters and brothers. The old Breezie had never found out who the parents were, or even if they had any. At the time, he'd laughed it off as traveller's tales. Now…

The three in front of him were staring. Although their eyes were wide, he couldn't help focusing on their tusks. Their sharp, suddenly far-too-long tusks.

Maybe now was a good time to give the "niceness" an airing.

"I want to know," he said as politely as he dared, "just what you are doing here."

Burningrose nodded. "We will show you more. Come with me."

They went down the tunnel, one guard in front of him, one guard behind him, and Burningrose far out in front. Up ahead, he heard the thunder of some giant creature.

Flutter Ponies scattered about the next chamber, even crawling on the cave ceiling. Seabreeze turned to the new vault door, but the white mushroom symbol was untouched. Beside it, a gaping maw peered out onto darkness, and coming the other way –

Seabreeze averted his gaze at once.

"You must learn," said Burningrose, his voice trembling slightly. "Our purpose is not ill will. We are a curious species. This is our first time in the vaults."

"There should never _be_ a first time," said Seabreeze without thinking, though when it caught up, his brain said: _We never let there be a first time for anyone but ourselves. Of course they are curious! Yet, do they have to be so… destructive about it?_

"Look." His translator pointed back at the hole.

A gigantic, gleaming, oil-black spike impaled the air and plunged further and further. The thing seemed way too long, and yet two more spikes ploughed on from either side. Seabreeze tried not to squeak.

From around the chamber, pale wingless things either scurried on six legs or wriggled on their bellies towards the emerging beast. Its head was nothing more than a bulbous base for the three horns, and when its domed black armour came through, the body looked far too small to support those horns. It was a trident with sticks for legs.

On its back, the Flutter Pony yelled something and cracked a blade of grass as a whip. The thing stood unnaturally still.

"But that is a –" Seabreeze grimaced and flapped his wings to take off, only to feel the prickle of warning tusks along their lengths. The guards had moved quickly.

"It is a Trident Rhinoceros Beetle." Burningrose nodded sagely. "Tougher than rocks and good in the dark. No. Look behind it."

The beetle groaned, and the young Flutter Ponies clambered or slithered over its yoked wingcase and onto the sled of bark. White caps glowed, and they held up the mushrooms and ran antennae over them or tasted them with nibbling teeth.

"Have you ever taken the ingredients out and examined them?" said Burningrose, apparently to the distant young.

Seabreeze shrugged; he might as well play along. "Yes. Of course. We have to check the Breezie magic is inside them before World Harvest."

"No, you are mistaken. You have done the same thing every year. Without thinking. Without looking. Without asking the right questions."

"What? What kind of questions?"

"_How_ does Breezie magic work? _How_ do the ingredients fit together? Is there a way we could make our own, so we are not weakened if the Fairy Ring stops working? You have… excuse me, it is hard to translate… I think the best word is 'sleep-walked'. You have 'sleep-walked' for centuries."

The two guards – he forgot their names – said something. Up ahead, the beetle shook a larva off its brow horn irritably.

"My friends say you need to be on our side. They say you will understand, because you are not a Breezie. They say in the game of Hive Versus Hive, you played like a Flutter Pony."

Around them, more Flutter Ponies closed in. They were watching the discussion and chattering amongst themselves. One of the guards behind him laughed and joined the chatter.

He wished they didn't. There were far too many tusks near his wings.

"Perhaps," Seabreeze said, narrowing his eyes, "I would like to know what 'your side' is up to. No one has ever done this before."

"No one has ever beaten Dragon Lily before." Burningrose tried not to smirk.

"I did not beat her. I cheated!"

"Did you? Or did you pretend to cheat?" The translator's face flashed a smirk. "We are both pioneers. Breezies have stagnated for centuries, but now we hear stories of the Last Minuters who did things differently. Vox Tailblade had the right idea, but she went about it wrong. That Ring Portal belongs to all of us. It is only fair."

"You _know_ why we could never let anyone else through. It is far too dangerous without protection."

"Oh? Do you _know_ that this is true, or is this what you've _taught_ yourself to say?"

Burningrose waved the crowd aside, and the two guards scuttled forwards and waved him through. As they scurried along the tunnel to the next chamber, Seabreeze noticed a couple of larvae wriggling and panting to keep up with him, despite the sharp chatter of the guards.

_Oh no,_ he thought, _they are going to keep talking and talking and talking. They will not keep talking forever. I must talk back at some point. But what do I say? Sorry, I cannot help you? Or yes, yes, I think you are doing the right thing by hurting my fellow Breezies?_

One of the larvae headbutted his twiggy leg and hissed and spat at him. He looked helplessly at the translator, but no one said anything until they reached the next crowded chamber. The silvery sheen crinkled under their steps; this place was coated in a layer of tinfoil, and when he glanced down his own smooth reflection glanced back.

"In a few days," said Burningrose, turning around, "the other species will be coming to the Fairy Ring."

"Are they on your side?" snapped Seabreeze. "Or are they coming to kick you out?"

"We've invited a few of them, but most will be coming to kick us out. They will be on our side when Vox Dragon Lily talks to them."

_Aha…_ "I have a feeling there is going to be a lot of talk about sweeping out the old ways and bringing in the new ones. Did Vox Tailblade get swept out with it?"

Around him, the hissing and spitting reached ear-breaking point. Both guards crouched down and their wings were a blur, cutting through the sounds and beating down the chatter until the whole chamber was silent. Both pairs of wings snapped back into place.

The larva headbutted him again. He suppressed the urge to kick it.

"It can't be that dangerous," said Burningrose, "if _Breezies_ can go forth and gather ingredients. We do not believe there is such a thing as Breezie magic. It is just sparkle and trickery."

_Oh really? Then why does everyone here look like they are about to flee if I sneeze loudly? Why are the guards shuffling their clawed feet? You can sense the magic. You just do not want to admit it to my face because you have stepped your foot deep into it, and now you cannot get it back out again. And I know you are desperate because you are asking for_ my _help._

"_What_ do you _want_ me to _do?_" he said, loudly and clearly.

Foil crinkled under their fidgeting legs. Burningrose cocked an antenna as a low-level clicking and spluttering ran around the gathered circle of mouths. Once more, the larva headbutted his leg.

"What?" he snapped at it.

A ripple of hushed shock smothered the low-level chatter.

"However," continued the translator, eyeing up the frozen faces around him, "some of the more… superstitious ones are feeling unhappy. We cannot take some of our beasts into the vaults of the catacombs, or 'dungeons' as you call them now –"

"The Mole Cricket?" Seabreeze hoped, hoped, _hoped_ the silence held out for a little longer. Everyone's gaze was on him.

"The Rhinoceros Beetles won't go down some of the tunnels either. They refuse to enter this metal one."

Somewhere around his leg, Seabreeze heard the clicking of tiny tusks. Burningrose tried a small smile.

"Little Sparklash there wants to ask you a question." He knelt down, and his wings stretched out as though barring his neighbours' paths. After a back-and-forth of chatter, he rose up again. "She wishes to know about the… Fey Ponies."

Seabreeze glanced up at the hazy reflections, and saw the whole circle lean closer. He had no idea where the other Breezies were, but they were probably stuck in honeycombs all over the place, just to keep them separate so they could never mobilize. Not that they were going to escape. He gulped. Those tusks looked a little… _keen_.

"Um," he said.

For the first time since he'd been down there, he was starting to feel heavy-headed, as though his brain had turned to steel. There was too much going on. He clung to this request and held on for dear life.

"Well… Piffle said the whole point of the World Harvest was to give the ingredients as a gift to both the Light and the Dark Fey. Not the real ones, but… um, their spirits, I suppose."

More chatter between Burningrose and the larva, more frowns and puzzled looks. "You mean," he said, "the good and the evil Fey Ponies?"

"_No!_ They were just different. I do not know the story very well. All I know is that they both come together on the World Harvest as friends. And," he added pointedly, "anyone who disturbed the ritual would die a gruesome and painful death soon afterwards. Which is why –"

The larva headbutted him one time too many. He pressed a hoof against it and pushed it away from him, whereupon it squealed.

All around him, the Flutter Ponies exploded with noise.

"W-Wait!" he yelped.

In spite of his efforts to talk over it, the chattering became too loud. Both guards snapped to attention and held wings out. The press of bodies surged forwards, Seabreeze dived into a cower, covered his eyes, and winced when all sound stopped.

When nothing happened for a few seconds, he raised his head. Burningrose faced the wall of Flutter Ponies, glaring at them.

"_What is going on?_" said Seabreeze.

"You shouldn't have touched our Little Sparklash." Against an outburst of chatter, the translator gave an almighty hiss and the wall drew back at once. "One should never hurt or frighten a young Flutter Pony. For most creatures, it is the last thing they ever do. I am sorry. They are very sensitive."

"I want to see my family," said Seabreeze. He didn't get up. "I should not be here."

Burningrose sighed. "Whatever Confetti Cinders and Inferno say, you are still a Breezie. Very well. I will tell you a secret. I don't know what to think about you. I hear stories about the Last Minuters who broke out of line. I hear my friends talk about how you think and plot and scheme like a Flutter Pony. But all I see is a Breezie."

The translator stuck a leg out. Nothing happened for a few seconds.

"You must understand. The old world will grow stagnant and the fey species will grow restless. All will weaken and sicken if we do not act now. Although your fellow Breezies have been captured, this is only out of desperation, _not_ ill will. Our kind want that we carry on your noble work, but more!"

Wearily, Seabreeze reached forwards and placed a tiny hoof on the still-extended claws, to be hauled back to his four feet in a gentle tug.

"We want a chance to break down the old barriers and find out what is lying on the other side. We want to take a world half good and make it better for everyone. Sending only Breezies out into the Big World is not fair and it is only done because nothing else has been tried. Now we will venture forth and try something else instead."

"What about the World Harvest? You intend to try that too?"

"Yes. We must learn. We must not be denied the secrets. Please listen to me," said the translator more urgently, almost hissing and spitting. "Do not be a Breezie. There will be lots of species here soon who are not scared of changing things. We want you to be one of them."

"Fine, fine! I will _think_ about it," said Seabreeze. _Anything to get out of here in one piece._

Besides, he wasn't just thinking about all the tusks anymore. There were brains behind those tusks.

The larva was staring up at him with its mouth open in awe. Gingerly, he smiled back.

Burningrose inclined his head, and the other Flutter Ponies followed suit. "We will escort you to your fellow Breezies. They will not listen to us, but perhaps they will listen to you. Now I must talk to my fellow Flutter Ponies, so you will have time to think. Think _carefully_, now. Your choices are clear. But so are the consequences."

Seabreeze nodded. His expression was as blank as he could make it. Unfortunately, so was the expression of Burningrose. Anything could be happening behind those calm eyes.

Finally, the translator scuttled away, taking most of the crowd with him. When the guards prodded Seabreeze towards the next vault door, he thought about larvae.

They prodded him in the wings, and he thought about weak points.


	9. Stinging the Scorpion

Panting, Seabreeze finally emerged from the hole of a window and floated down to the base of the palace. Glancing up, he saw the last of the orange disappearing over the far hillocks.

_Oh my! How long was I down there?_

He silenced the thought at once and looked down, antennae glowing. Where the water fell down the side of the palace, it pooled into a small puddle before trickling down the bank and into the pond. That marked the cut-off between the eastern side and the western side.

Below, one wall of the honey-coated palace gaped where a Rhinoceros Beetle had forced its way through, and now three of the creatures lined up along the puddle's banks. Each had a Flutter Pony rider, the whipping grass poised over their bulging heads. Other Flutter Ponies gathered on the bark sleds behind them and fumbled with sparkling piles of mushroom caps, sparkling balls of fire, and sparkling balloons. Each balloon deflated, and when the tusks drew back, sparkling air rushed over them.

"Is that for the gathering?" He pointed down, but it made no difference. Neither of the guards understood a word he was saying.

On the opposite bank, the toadstool homes stood dark and empty. The block of honeycombs began to glow with the dimming light. He could see the heads of the Breezies, all slumped, none of them daring to look up. This time, guards encircled them, having no intention of falling for the same tricks twice. Nearby, a huddle closed in on three larvae and something else, which was wailing at the top of its lungs.

Recognition stabbed at his heart.

_They have Saltshaker. My son! My SON! How dare they!?_

Finally, he picked out the face of Zephyrine, which was shining.

Instincts yelled and stamped inside his head, but another part of him held up a warning hoof. It was chewing its lips and making him focus on the guards, on their waspish waists, and on the unmistakeable pouches strapped to them. Even from this distance, the fizzle of iron began gnawing at his brain.

Nothing had freed him but the steel-trap jaws of the Cleaner Pillbugs, and they were nowhere to be seen. Besides, the guards wouldn't fall for that trick again. There was no way he could hammer the Breezies out of the hardened honey before anyone tackled him. In any case, his two flanking watchers were flying almost on top of his own dainty wings. His butterfly physique would never compete with their waspish ones in a straight flight.

Another groan came from the Rhinoceros Beetles. Whips cracked, but the beetles only shuffled on their tiny feet and groaned again. Sparkling gusts passed their faces, and they shook themselves down and groaned more loudly.

Seabreeze's eyes narrowed. During his time in the Big World, he'd been too impatient to stop himself shouting and yelling insults. He'd wanted to slap the other Breezies silly. He'd almost burned with it.

Fire burned through him again, and he cupped his hooves to his mouth and shouted: "Hey! Zephyrine! It is me!"

Her head jerked up with a start and wide eyes flashed towards him. Saltshaker's wails stopped at once.

"Seabreeze!" she yelled desperately. The other Breezies opened their eyes and tried to follow her gaze.

"I am fine!" He drifted down towards the waterfall over the pond and then stopped, hovering an inch ahead of the cascade. "I remembered what you taught me about Hive Versus Hive! You gave me such great advice!"

She simply beamed at him, her eyes shining. At least he thought so; he was too busy trying to stop his own from burning and blurring the world around him. Two jabs into his wings forced him to drift forwards. Neither guard landed, simply buzzing along in his wake.

"I remembered the lesson," he continued shouting, "about waiting to draw out your enemy's weaknesses before striking! It was a good lesson!"

Puzzled frowns met his words. He was but a yard away now, and the heads in the block of gold whispered amongst themselves. Feeling reckless, he risked a wink at her. Both eyes widened with shocked realization.

"What are you doing?" Jingo Belle called. She was white in the face, and her eyes were rimmed with redness. "Shut up! You'll make them angry!"

_Good. They deserve to be angered._

Yet a smirk played on Zephyrine's lips. _She knows,_ he thought triumphantly. _Could I have asked for a better partner?_

"I'm just glad you're safe." She twitched her antennae towards him. "There's iron about. Be careful."

"I think _everybody_ should be careful!" he said cheerfully.

Every guard around them twitched nervously. They were used to chatter among prisoners, but not when it was this upbeat. Stingers slid out of abdomens. Three of the grounded ones reached a leg into their pouches.

Before reaching the honeycomb, he turned to the guard flanking his right. "I am very sorry about this," he said to the guard's blank stare.

And then he grabbed their heads and pulled.

Seabreeze vaulted over the two of them before the splashes of black powder went anywhere near him. He ignored the two screams and hit the ground at once, reaching back and crumpling his wings to stop the drag. Both back legs flailed in a sad mockery of a run, but it was better than flying. Angry buzzing closed in.

With a leap, he was right in front of the beetle's long horn. Improvising, its rider cracked the whip. Seabreeze pushed the horn up, heard the whip snap against the solid black cone, and scurried around its head and came up right next to its piggy black eye. Three guards were on top of him. One had black powder on its claws.

Fizzing lights popped in his vision. Not daring himself to think about what he was doing, Seabreeze backed into the beast's face and then ducked and leaped aside just as the guard threw the iron dust. And missed.

An almighty roar shook him from head to toe. Powder poured from the beetle's eye. The offending Flutter Pony lowered its leg, screeched, and flew backwards, and the horn swung again to knock the other two into the puddle.

Seabreeze heard the splash. He spread his wings, flapped, and rose over the domed black sheen to the rider on top. Screaming, the rider flexed the grass blade, but not quickly enough. The whip cracked off the beast's wingcase. By then, Seabreeze had rolled down the curve on the other side, and he bounced on the grass.

One of the lessons he'd learned from Zephyrine was how to use an opponent's pieces against them. To make sure, he turned and hit the beast on the rump with a swipe. _Best to get the full advantage_.

Roaring, thundering, flailing its gigantic horns, the Rhinoceros Beetle ran into the side of its neighbour. Knocked aside, the next beetle swung its oversized head and rapped against the horns of the third beetle. Seabreeze rounded on the sparkling balls of fire.

All the riders whipped and yelled at their charges, but immediately, the thrown flames rushed around the backs of the beetles, and suddenly they weren't in control anymore. It wasn't even the fire; the rush of sparkles cut through their senses worse than iron through a Breezie.

Three groaning mouths exploded with noise. All the riders yelped and tumbled off their domed backs. Then the front legs of the rearing creatures landed with a thunderous crash.

Seabreeze dropped the next fireball and scurried after the beginnings of the stampede. Water rushed away from the stamping beasts. Flutter Ponies that had been chasing a rogue Breezie found their way blocked by a wall of roaring, thundering, horn-flailing beetles. Some shot up out of range. The rest were too slow; they tumbled across the ground or splashed into the water.

Zephyrine screamed something to the others, but Seabreeze could guess. Once the pool fell behind, he heard the crack. Golden fragments tumbled and dotted the ploughed ground. The beetles rammed into one of the toadstool stalks. There was a sound like the crackle of a redwood giving way, and then the house groaned and fell out of sight.

Seabreeze's heart sank. "My home! Not my home!"

A noise snapped him back into reality. The three larvae squealed where the guards had left them. Seabreeze ignored the lot and snatched up Saltshaker, who was gawping after the black carapaces. On an impulse, he plucked one of the larvae from the ground. It took a moment to cradle it in his other forelimb; the thing squirmed and wriggled like a worm on a hook.

"Time to go!" he yelled.

From the palace, clouds of Flutter Ponies billowed out of every gap. An angry buzzing swelled to fill the air around him.

"Seabreeze!" Gold cracked, and Zephyrine rose up from the front of the beetle stampede. "We need help!"

Half-running, half-flapping, he hopped and glided over to the scattered remains of the honeycomb. Breezies lay groaning and shaking themselves down on the ploughed-up ground. Only Zephyrine was awake and alert, floating over Piffle and trying to yank him up by the wings.

"They got knocked around!" She was trying not to let her voice crack. "Seabreeze! Where have you been?"

"I have rescued Saltshaker." The baby in question reached over and patted the struggling larva on the head. "Head for the big hill! We need to hide out and come up with a plan!"

Reflected in her wide eyes, the wall of Flutter Ponies eclipsed even the looming slope. "Are you crazy?"

"I know how we can beat them!" he yelled over the buzzing. "We can drive them out for good! But you will have to trust me!"

They didn't even need to stare. As soon as their eyes met, the spark shot across. Both of them nodded.

By the time the first of the guards landed an inch away, the two had already helped Hugglenut and Piffle onto their hooves and shaken them back into the land of the living. Seabreeze took a step away from them and flared his wings so fast they almost ripped.

The nearest Flutter Ponies saw the Big Breezie.

The first of the hive backed into those behind them. As a crowd was now forming, this meant that, at the end of the line of dominoes, someone yelped and fell back with a splash. Still more came buzzing over their heads, trying to surround him if not actually get close to him.

"Stay back!" he yelled, holding up both Saltshaker and the larva. "I have one of your babies! Away with you!"

No one understood the words, but they understood the tone. Those who were grounded froze where they stood. Even those still airborne hovered uncertainly.

Seabreeze's wings sparkled. A slight flame ran along the edges where he'd stashed the embers, and now his magic fuelled the ring of flickering lights.

One Flutter Pony fought to the front. His mane was familiar; it had a slight gleam. _Burningrose,_ thought Seabreeze angrily. _Trying to make a traitor out of me!_

The translator yelled over the omnipresent buzz, "You are brave, but you cannot beat us all. If you harm that larva, then nothing stops us from capturing you again."

"Let me go, and the larva will be safe!" Seabreeze didn't move when Zephyrine came forwards and took Saltshaker from him. That just left his one forelimb free, and he wasted no time scooping flames from his wing.

"You are bluffing, Big Breezie. Even one such as you would not harm an innocent. That is too far from your true nature."

"So is fighting back!" Seabreeze raised his free limb, and the flames crackled closer to the larva's wide eyes. It stared in fascination at the flickering glow. "What is my nature? Breezie, or Flutter Pony? Shall we find out?"

Behind him, all the Breezies crowded round. Seabreeze waved a wing at them, forcing them to take a step backwards. Faintly, he heard Zephyrine whispering instructions to the lot of them.

"You are _hurting_ us, Big Breezie!" Burningrose nodded to his neighbour, who took a step forwards. At once, the flames rose up with a burst of sparkles. Every front-row Flutter Pony gasped and backed into those behind. Another splash followed.

The fire of rage surged into Seabreeze's brain, and his mind screamed: _Bullies! Monsters! Tricksters!_ "You thought we were _cowards_ who were not worth talking to! Maybe we are cowards, but we are still fey and we still have feelings and thoughts and minds of our own! That did not stop you from behaving like barbarians just because you did not like us! And only _now_ do you want to treat us like friends instead of enemies!? _How dare you!_ If that is your idea of respect, then you are right; I am Breezie, through-and-through, and I am a thousand times over proud of who I am!"

Seabreeze flapped slightly. As one, the Breezies behind him copied his move. Perhaps out of awe or blind confusion, he had them entirely on his side, but already he could hear urgent whispers among the likes of Gusto and Piffle, who'd always been quick on the uptake. They would know he was bluffing.

The wall of Flutter Ponies advanced. He could tell from their eyes that they weren't going to try anything, but they kept a healthy yard from him all the same, never letting him stray any further than that yard from them. The ones overhead unsheathed their stings.

"We honour those with a fighting spirit!" Burningrose's voice trembled slightly. "You have the will and the drive to achieve greatness, yes! You've proven it again. Why waste your time helping Breezies who only want to sleepwalk through life? They are no good to anyone. They won't help us achieve greatness, so we must take it for _ourselves_."

Far behind him, he could hear the ripping of vegetation as the distant beetles stampeded towards the horizon. Zephyrine reached forwards and placed a hoof on his shoulder.

It was getting darker. Already, the orange had faded to a dull green sheen, and the Flutter Ponies were squinting. All eyes were on the flame. All Flutter Pony eyes.

Seabreeze was careful not to let the sheer glow of the enchanted, sparkling fire enter his field of view. Despite the scents tickling his nose and the textures of the night rubbing against his antennae and wings, if he could keep his night vision as well then he would have that one extra advantage. Just a little longer…

In his hoof, the flame crackled on. The warmth ran through his forelimb. If only he could hold on… It was taking all his effort just to keep his delicate wings as far back from it as possible, and the embers on those now went out. In his grip, the larva was gnashing its tusks out of fear and rage.

On the horizon, the dull green sheen faded into dark blue. Stars twinkled overhead.

"There are many Flutter Ponies surrounding you," said Burningrose from somewhere in front of him; only the gleam of his mane kept him from disappearing completely. "As soon as one bumps into you, more will find you and take you. Not _one_ of you can flee."

"I hope you weren't just winging it," whispered Zephyrine in his ear.

"Close your eyes and trust me," he whispered back.

Now, closing his eyes, he could sense the contours of the world: every flick of an antenna appeared inside his tactile map of the world near him. He could almost see the bodies creeping closer to the cooling flames. No whisper of Flutter Pony instructions escaped his ears, though not one word of it made sense to him either.

To his shock, he felt the air shift and Gusto stepped forwards. She was vibrating worse than Jingo Belle, but when she spoke, each word trembled with fury. In his forelimb, the larva stiffened and hissed at her voice.

"There are RULES," she yelled. "How DARE you come in here and violate CENTURIES of rule! You little TRAITORS! You upstart CROOKS! When the other species find out what CRIMES you've done, there WILL be a RECKONING!"

"Get back, Gusto!" Another shift of the air told him Piffle had stepped forwards. The old Breezie snatched at the youngster's wings, but she was already marching towards the frontline, leaving a trailing haze of anger in her wake.

"You will ALL be tried for TRESPASSING! KIDNAPPING! BREAKING the PEACE! THREATENING innocent creatures! THEFT! PROFANING the enchanted VAULTS! No crime will go UNPUNISHED!"

"Gusto!" Even with part of himself cheering her on, Seabreeze's mind flooded with horror. "What are you doing? Get back!"

"She's mad," groaned Piffle into his hooves.

"You cannot escape," said Burningrose. He spoke fiercely, perhaps prodded into it out of sheer outraged defensiveness. "We commit no crimes. The old rules are swept away. Surrender now, and we can still resolve this peacefully. If you resist us, then negotiations are over. _For good._"

Seabreeze's heart cracked and began sinking. _What has gotten into Gusto? No! What has gotten into_ me?

Already this was starting to go wrong. He could sense the rising change around the circle as Gusto stood trembling with fury. He could sense the Flutter Ponies' keen interest in her. Here was a new target, and _she_ did not have a hostage tucked under a leg.

A few heads rose and sank, nailing him and then nailing Gusto. Basic reasoning and logic crept through their minds. The question was: Was he going to give up his only hostage for _one_ Breezie?

Worse, the Breezies behind him crept forwards in a half-hearted decision to stand with her. As she was already within grabbing distance, the whole lot would be swarmed the instant they blinked.

Seabreeze shook his head fiercely. _No! We cannot become like them! We must not let anger control us!_

"Keep back!" Zephyrine hissed at them. Except for Piffle, they all stopped at once.

Piffle peered through the gloom at the translator for a moment. Then he opened his mouth and spoke.

Flutter Ponies gasped around the circle. Those who'd been crawling towards Gusto froze in the act. Even over the buzzing, the old Breezie's hissing and spitting cut cleanly through the air.

"What is he saying?" hissed Seabreeze, trying to stop the larva from flipping itself out of his grip. Milktears began to sob.

Piffle cut himself off at once. "It's an ancient song. Don't ask me the details. Just leave me behind and go."

"_No!_" said Seabreeze. "I will need you after we get out of here. I need a translator."

"You've run out of ideas, bluff boy," he snapped back. "We're going to be stuck unless I can scare them into not following us."

"_Listen! I already have that figured out._"

"I know you, Seabreeze. And when are you going to do _it_, then? Never, and they won't wait all night! We have an advantage in the dark, and they know it, but they have the muscle and they won't stop until we're down. We're stuck now! Seabreeze, you're a _fool!_"

"No, I am not! Everyone," said Seabreeze loudly while the old Breezie continued to hiss and spit at the surrounding wall of faces, "we will scatter in a moment. Then I want you to meet up at the _Place Where They Meet_. Do you understand?"

At first, puzzled mutterings met these words, but then the Breezies whispered their assent. _Thank goodness_, he thought. The flames crackled on his free hoof and almost went out. At this, the larva twisted round and gnashed its teeth and tusks trying to bite him.

Then Gusto completely went over the edge. In one move, she shot forwards and grabbed at Burningrose's front legs. "You're our PRISONER –"

The Flutter Ponies jerked out of their collective nightmare.

She yelped under the wall rushing inwards. Immediately, she was lost to the mass of bodies piling up. Seabreeze swung round and, ignoring Piffle's shouts, threw the flames as hard as he could at the fallen toadstool's window.

"Flee!" he yelled.

Flapping hard, he vaulted over the fallen stalk as the window exploded with flaming glass, and a bubbling mass of Springtails burst out of it.

Flutter Ponies fumbled to seize his wings, and he spun around and flashed his antennae so brightly that the two nearest him squealed and covered their eyes. He could feel the wall of bodies rush in, and then the bulbous Springtails cannoned into them. The hissing and spitting and the occasional _sproing_ soon fell far behind.

Zephyrine flapped next to him, and they zipped and spiralled and rose and ducked through the forest of toadstool trunks and tiny trees. Once, a beetle blundered past and they had to arc over it, not even realizing they'd been followed until the three luckless Flutter Ponies went "oof" and ricocheted off the black armour.

"This is insane!" hissed Zephyrine in the darkness. Somewhere around her legs, Saltshaker wailed. "Hush now, dinkums. 'oo's gonna be good for dere mommy-wommy?"

"Give him this." Seabreeze thrust the squealing larva into her, and she yelped trying not to drop anything. "And thank goodness _you_ are a sloppy cleaner. I told you those Springtails multiply like crazy, and I was right! My idea would never have worked if you had done your job."

"Uh, thanks? I guess?" Zephyrine struggled not to drop either load, but now the baby was settling down and the larva was sniffing him suspiciously. "Play nice now," she added, her voice on the edge of sanity. "No loud noises, eh?"

"I have a plan," he whispered, though by now the buzzing and shouting and screaming had fallen far behind in the darkness.

"Oh good," she said weakly. The larva bubbled. "I'm… glad you said that."

"Do not worry. I will explain when we get there. No one is going to invade my home and get away with it. But hush! Let us just be quiet for now."

"Seabreeze!" She said it almost as a gasp. "What has gotten into you? This isn't just your bad temper anymore. Did something _happen_ in there?"

He did not answer for the longest while, and the flames that had buoyed him up were dwindling. Eventually he said, "I think I made a terrible mistake. Am I a Breezie or a Flutter Pony?"

"What!? Breezie, of course, you daftie! Seabreeze, _what is going on?_"

Yet all he could do was shake his head. He shushed her until she stopped asking. The smells of confusion and resentment wafted from her, but in any case, words flashed through his mind as replies, and none of them seemed remotely right. Besides, somewhere in his chest was the gnawing worm of _doubt_.

Soon, there were no more noises behind them. The darkness and the silence followed in their wake.


	10. The Wasp With No Hive

From the top of the hill, Seabreeze could see over the dark forest of tiny trees. Lights waved back and forth along a narrow path. Dimly, he could make out the travellers.

_They must be the first of the fey tribes,_ he thought. Under the glowing pinpricks, he could discern the pupil-less eyes, stubby snouts, and rosy cheeks of the Nymphs. The rounded proportions of their fronts contrasted strangely with their long, tail-like abdomens, and mothy wings flowed from their backs as gracefully as robes.

Each one had a laurel wreath on his or her head. They were _noble_ spirits, striding smoothly. A party of Flutter Ponies intercepted them on the path.

_Both of them look happy to see each other._ Seabreeze groaned. _So, we will get no help from there._

"I'll cover watch duty," said Piffle. Seabreeze turned around to see the old Breezie ambling up the slope, and shook his head.

"We have nowhere else to go," he replied. "There is no point watching. This is as safe as we are going to get."

"If you say so. The others are waiting for you."

Both of them paced their returning walk. On the side of the hill, what would've looked like just another patch of mossy ground was really an overhanging flap of moss, indistinguishable by sight. Nevertheless, they could feel its shape and weight through each hoofstep, and they pushed it aside and crawled through a gap so narrow it almost snagged their wings.

Down the next passage, their steps echoed on the stonework. Buried under the soil of the hill, the fort was a relic from the ancient days. Mould covered its walls and shone when they lit their antennae. Up ahead, the passage ended with granite brickwork. Piffle knocked a carefully ordered rhythm that Seabreeze couldn't follow, and the hatch scraped by to let them squeeze through.

Zephyrine, Jingo Belle, Saltshaker, and the larva sat in a circle. This chamber was large enough for a pony's coffin, and just beyond their antennae's light, something gleamed.

They called this place the Ringfort. It was said to be the burial ground of the last army of Fey Ponies. Seabreeze raised his lights, and the white barding shone. When he'd been younger, he'd managed to sneak in here and wondered what it would be like to try on the armour.

Jingo Belle looked up. "No sign of them?"

"No one has seen them yet," he said. "Look, why not take the armour in case we need –"

"Out of the question," Piffle snapped. "These are ancient relics. You can look, but you can't touch."

There were two rows of barding, one white and gleaming, the other dark. Not just dark: they were so dark that they absorbed the light around them and stood out even with the lights turned off. They made the rest of the burial room, masked in shadow as it was, look merely light grey.

"They'd protect us from the stings," said Jingo Belle, but she was glancing left and right, trying to catch out any sneaking ghosts. "I'm sure the old Fey Ponies would understand! And at this time of year, they're meaningful. That gives them extra magical power."

"We are not wearing them!" Zephyrine growled. Beside her, Saltshaker and the larva played a game of tag. "The thought of wearing barding that someone's died in… That's _icky_."

Three knocks echoed in the silence. Piffle froze.

A muffled voice came through the stone, and Jingo Belle shot up into the air. "That's Milktears! Let her in!"

When the brick scraped back, Hugglenut and Milktears stepped into the light, their own antennae entwined. Jingo Belle leaped forwards and tackled the two in a tight hug.

Someone yelped. At once, the three of them backed off.

"What the –?" began Jingo Belle.

"What's that?" said Zephyrine, curling her lip as she peered through the gloom.

Hugglenut and Milktears beamed as though announcing their engagement. She said: "That's our new prisoner! We caught her trying to sneak after us when we were running away."

He added: "So we jumped her and tied up her legs and wings. She can't do anything except wriggle. It's perfect!"

Zephyrine wrinkled her nose. The Flutter Pony's mane was knotted and full of thorns and oval leaves.

"She's their Vox," she muttered. "She's the one behind this."

"Um," said Seabreeze, "actually, she is not. There is another one who is taking charge. I do not think this one means anything to them now. They did not seem to like her very much."

All gazes fell on him until he blushed and drew back. Hugglenut and Milktears pulled on their improvised leashes, hauling the figure into the centre of the ring.

Tailblade stared up at them, wide-eyed, and curled up. Her eyes gleamed orange.

"I say we take her hostage," said Jingo Belle, shaking and starting to foam around the mouth. "Make her see how she likes being bullied, and powerless, and terrified –"

"We're Breezies!" said Piffle. He gaped at her.

"Exactly! We should stick together. Gang up on them! We need to stick together, or they'll take us all. They won't dare do anything if _she's_ in our clutches!"

Seabreeze didn't say anything. His throat was sore, and he couldn't stop staring at the terrified eyes below him. Tailblade's gaze darted from one face to another. Next to him, Zephyrine was glowering at the prisoner.

Piffle turned his gaze to the walls. Chalk figures peered through the dim circle of their lights, dressed with black in white armour and white in black armour. They were marching side-by-side along the burial chamber.

"Light and dark…" he murmured. "Order and chaos… High and low…"

"Seabreeze," snapped Zephyrine. The luckless Breezie almost jumped. "Did you see any other fey species?"

"Nymphs," he managed to say, seating himself next to the twitching stinger. "They will not help us. They are invited guests."

"The Charity Ponies and the Viler Spirits will, though," said Jingo Belle with a nervous giggle. "They hate violence. And then there's the Joggers, the Chaneques, and the Curupira. All of them like things the way they are. None of them want the Flutter Ponies mucking it up."

Around this point, Seabreeze noticed the old Breezie staring intently at the Vox. Both were maintaining eye contact.

"Take off her gag," said Piffle at once.

Mid-speech, Jingo Belle snarled at him. "What? What for? You won't learn anything from her! She's treacherous! Seabreeze already told us what the plan was."

"What plan?" Milktears frowned.

"Yes, please take off her gag," said Seabreeze. He stood up. "I want to know what she has to say."

"But she's a liar, and their leader!" Jingo Belle paced up and down, flexing her antennae as though she wanted to strangle them. "No Flutter Pony can be trusted with anything! Have you forgotten what they did to us?"

"No." Piffle curled his lip in disgust. "But that's what her hive did, not her. And I don't think they trust her to be their leader anymore. Take off her gag, please."

Narrowing her eyes at him, Milktears waited an indecently long time before reaching forwards. A swipe of her hoof, and the Flutter Pony gasped for air and began panting.

Seabreeze saw his partner glare at him. Uncertainty trembled in Zephyrine's face, and she glared all the harder. He threw her a despairing shrug and turned back to the Flutter Pony.

"I want to find out what she has to say for herself," said Piffle. "Hoping the other fey species will help us is too risky. There might be a better way."

"There _is_ no better way!" Milktears' yell echoed through the chamber. "Jingo Belle's right! When the other species find out the Flutter Ponies broke the rules –"

"_Some_ of them will be angry," said Hugglenut, nodding at the old Breezie. When he spoke again, his tone was softer and calmer. "But maybe… maybe some of them will like the idea. I think Piffle is right. Just think of the Enchanters of the River. They change their minds at the drop of a hat."

No one spoke for a while. In the corner behind Piffle, both the larva and Saltshaker tumbled over each other, giggling.

Seabreeze followed the Flutter Pony's gaze to the walls, where the chalk figures were smiling or frowning or laughing or weeping. _Individual faces, yet the same colours over and over. Dragon Lily thought it was a game of good and evil. Maybe this is like that game… "clear and distilled"._

He'd tried being tough, and it had gotten them… all over the place. Perhaps the next step was to see where being nice worked, and where it didn't.

"Ask her what she wants," he said. "Please."

Piffle nodded and began hissing and spitting. Round the back, the larva stopped trying to climb up Saltshaker's back and wriggled over to listen. Seabreeze suddenly felt the energy rush out of him, and he shuffled over to his partner and, ignoring the way her back stiffened, seated himself beside her with a bump.

"What _is_ wrong with trying to talk to the other species?" said Zephyrine. Her face was now blank, her tone carefully calm.

"I do not know," said Seabreeze. "A few days ago, we could have asked ourselves what the Flutter Ponies did not like about us, and we might have answered 'Nothing'."

Once Piffle stopped, Tailblade responded in kind. Then they continued talking. Soon, the pair of them were chatting away, ignoring the red of Jingo Belle's face and the frown on Milktears'.

"It is not the same now," he continued. "When I was in the dungeons, I found out they really hated us. They think we are wishy-washy and dawdle and do not really know what we are doing."

Zephyrine sighed loudly. "I'm not sure _you_ know what you're doing right now."

"No. That is why I want to do it and see what happens."

Just then, Piffle and Tailblade stopped talking. Everyone crowded closer.

"She says…" Piffle glanced at Seabreeze, while Hugglenut scratched behind an ear and frowned. "She was impressed by the way Seabreeze played a game with Dragon Lily."

"_You!?_" hissed Jingo Belle, rounding on Seabreeze. "You were what!? Playing a _game!?_ What?"

"She says that her hive has turned against her," continued Piffle loudly, "and Dragon Lily is convincing them that she's a hypocrite. All her life, she says, she kept to the traditions and tried to maintain order. When she learned about your exploits in the Big World, she started to question herself. Her hive began to be suspicious of the present order, if even feeble Breezies were able to manage in the Big World so well and yet so differently."

At the same time Milktears opened her mouth to shriek at them, Tailblade began speaking again. She was watching the larva, and then the Flutter Pony turned her gaze to Saltshaker when he waddled over to tag the flexing young tail.

"I really should clear things up about that Forage some day." Seabreeze shook his head at the floor. The larva peered up at his face wide-eyed. "So what does she want?"

Piffle translated, and another barrage of chatting followed. A small grin flickered under his antennae's glow.

"She _wanted_ to express herself," he said.

"What does that mean?"

"Isn't it obvious?" said Zephyrine with a shrug. "She lives in a hive. She did things the traditional way, and so did everyone else. I'll bet it got a bit boring after a while."

"Are you even _listening_ to yourselves!?" hissed Jingo Belle. "She's the _enemy!_"

Tailblade spoke quickly, forcing the words out before she forgot them. The larva ignored Saltshaker's attempts to ride it and flattened itself on the brickwork, ears waggling.

"_Now_ what's going on?" said Hugglenut.

Piffle's face scrunched under the effort of concentration. "She's… telling a story."

While Jingo Belle made a disbelieving laugh, Zephyrine shuffled closer to Seabreeze. He pretended not to notice, too rapt by the unintelligible tale being spun by those clicking tusks, those biting teeth, the flecks showering onto the floor before the disgraced Vox who refused to meet anyone's gaze.

"I know this story." Piffle hummed to himself.

"_Tell_ us!" said Hugglenut impatiently. He was promptly shushed.

Everyone waited until the Vox fell silent, and then Piffle said: "A long time ago, the Light Fey and the Dark Fey created a dance to bind their love for each other. Every time the seasons changed, they danced the same routine, and they kept this up for a thousand years."

Losing interest, the larva turned and tried to writhe over the baby's back, but now Saltshaker stared up in rapt attention.

"One day, a Fey Pony was born who was neither Light nor Dark, but Grey."

"Was it a he or a she?" said Milktears, and then blinked and covered her mouth to hide the profanity of her own interest.

"Neither. This one was simply called the Grey."

"I know that story," said Zephyrine softly, and Seabreeze shivered to hear her voice so close to his ear. "It's the Tale of the Fairy Ring. My mother used to tell it to me every night."

"I never heard this one," said Hugglenut, and got a thump on the shoulder for his trouble. "What?"

Milktears massaged her hoof. "Don't encourage them!"

"So you know what happens next, then." Piffle shrugged. "The Grey became impatient with the same routines because he… uh, she… it… didn't fit into the grand scheme at all. Instead, the Grey went into the wilds and stumbled across a ring of mushrooms. There, the Grey began to dance to a completely different tune, and the love and energy in its own secret dance leaked out and created the first Fairy Ring."

Seabreeze placed a hoof on Zephyrine's shoulder. Relief swept over him; she did not shake him off.

"This means something," he whispered, more to himself than to her. Out of the corner of his eyes, he noticed her slight nod, but she still did not look away from the calm, staring Flutter Pony.

"When it entered the ring to continue the dance, it was shocked by a bright light, and found itself emerging into another world. The Grey was the first to step into the Big World, a world where the creatures were as tall as hillocks and the elements were fiercer than Tiger Beetles and stronger than mountains. Afraid for its life, the Grey fashioned the first bow and arrow from a nearby alder tree for protection, and as a warning fired the first Feyshot."

"This is all very sweet, but where is this bedtime story going?" said Jingo Belle.

Hugglenut looked down at the trussed-up Flutter Pony. "It's real, isn't it? It's not a myth. It really happened."

"When the Grey went back, it showed the Fey Ponies what it had discovered. And what they found was that, over a thousand years, their world had been growing sick and stagnant, and was now on the brink of death."

"And that's when our ancestors began the first Forages," said Zephyrine. Seabreeze felt her forelimb wrap around his shoulders, and the tingling warmth caressed his spine. "The Grey became a hero."

Seabreeze finally met the Flutter Pony's gaze, and a frown creased across his face. _I wonder. If she is telling the truth, then she was pretty selfish and stubborn to go off by herself. It is worse now she has failed. The hive would have let her do it if she had asked them, would they not? Even in spite of that, they would have cheered her if she had succeeded, would they not? She _did_ say they wanted change too._

He reached across and embraced Zephyrine, never taking his gaze from the eyes of Tailblade. No flicker betrayed a lie. _What would she have to lose?_ _Dragon Lily is practically the new Vox, if she is not literally so by now_.

_Take a deep breath…_

"We're wasting time," said Milktears. "The other fey species will be here soon. I want to know what we're going to do to get rid of these _things_." A contemptuous hoof flicked towards the centre of the circle. It earned her a hiss from the larva.

"What _else_ are we going to do?" said Hugglenut. "Tell them the truth."

"Anything!" said Jingo Belle, throwing her front hooves up. "Just get them out of here before the Forage comes back!"

"I do not think telling the truth is enough." Seabreeze stood up. He nodded to Piffle, who began translating for Tailblade's sake. After a few seconds of silence, he added, "I think we need to _face_ it, too."

Unsurprisingly, Jingo Belle began shaking and spluttering. "Stop talking in riddles! What are you up to now!?"

"I am saying we might be getting too impatient with the Flutter Ponies. We want everyone in this world to be safe from danger, but now we are lashing out just like they did. Just like I did when I was on the Forage, and no one else wanted to leave that cottage and come home. Tailblade got too impatient, and now her hive believe she is a traitor. Her hive got impatient, and now they are wrecking the land because they do not understand what they are doing. I saw them ruining the vaults and the ingredients. Now _we_ are getting impatient, and if we are too quick to lash out, we might put _everyone_ in danger."

He glared at Jingo Belle, who was so wide-eyed with shock that she was no longer shaking where she stood. It took him a moment to realize he had shot to his hooves. Instantly, he sat back down again, but several seconds passed before anyone stopped staring at him. Zephyrine and he reached out for each other.

"You mean we'll start a war?" said Milktears, boggling at her own words.

Hugglenut turned pale. "But we haven't had a war in centuries. It can't just _happen!_"

"That's nonsense, Seabreeze! You're giving up because of what _might_ happen!?"

Piffle stopped translating and glared at Milktears. "Giving up on _what,_ my dear? The chance to stop anyone getting hurt? The chance to learn how to do our jobs properly? We're supposed to be friends with the other species by keeping them safe, not by treating them like monsters."

Zephyrine clutched her partner ever more tightly. Her face radiated with heat. On the ground, the Flutter Pony sighed.

There was a sharp movement. Jingo Belle shot for the doorway, turned, and fixed them all with a fiery snarl. Her wings were a blur from the sheer trembling fury trying to shake them apart.

"I'm not listening to any more of this!" She shot a hoof at Seabreeze. "I would have thought that _you_ of all Breezies would've stood up to these outrageous criminals! We can't let them get away with this!"

"We're not _going_ to!" snapped Piffle. "But we can't act like –"

"'But'? 'But'!? You can't say you're for justice and then say 'but'! I am leaving, and anyone who's got any sense will come with me. If you're too frightened and soft to stand up to bullies, then I'll do it myself if I have to!"

No one moved for a long while. Even the larva was staring after her agape.

As one, their gazes turned to Milktears. She squeaked and hung her head, took a step towards the exit, and then turned to Hugglenut. It was impossible to read the tics and spasms crisscrossing his face. One hoof reached across to hers, and then stopped.

Milktears batted it aside.

"No. I'm sorry," she whispered to the floor. "It's _over_ between us."

Both Seabreeze and Zephyrine clung more tightly to each other. They could feel each other's hearts sinking into their intertwined limbs. Neither of them moved when Hugglenut sniffed something back.

The rest of the party watched her go. Finally, the brickwork slammed back into place, and the two were gone.

"Oh dear," said Piffle sadly. "I'm sorry, my young friend."

"It's OK." Hugglenut's voice was thick, so he snorted it back down. In a forced bass, he added, "This is important. She knows it, I know it, we _both_ know it. We just have different views about how to tackle it, that's all."

Everyone looked down at the Vox, who hadn't dared move the whole time she'd been there. More to occupy his forelimbs than anything else, Hugglenut crouched down and fiddled with the bindweed. A moment later, Zephyrine detached herself from her partner and crouched down to help him.

Tailblade stretched her wings to flick away the last threads. Soon, she was cracking each joint in her legs and flexing her neck and waist. Under her shadow, the larva headbutted her clawed feet until she patted it on the head.

Piffle said something to her, and they devolved into hisses and spittle. All eyes turned to Seabreeze.

"Well," said Zephyrine, picking up Saltshaker, who squirmed and tried to break free. "You'd better start filling us in on your plan, because at this point it sounds like we're just popping in there and talking."

"Not a chance," said Piffle. "Tailblade just told me the guards will be out in full force when the speech starts. 'Vox' Dragon Lily will catch us the moment we come within a yard of the palace."

"Oh, so she's on _our_ side now?"

Piffle's spitty translation resulted in Tailblade giving Zephyrine the narrow-eyes treatment.

"Um. Not exactly. It would be more accurate to call this a temporary alliance for mutual gain," said Piffle, blushing and looking away. "Look, she's a Vox trying to get her hive back, or at least trying to take it from her replacement. Once that's done, _perhaps_ we can come to some sort of agreement. Until then, let's just plan and focus on our common enemy, OK?"

_Oh my word,_ thought Seabreeze faintly. _It is not brave words. We are really doing this. They have talked themselves into it, one way or another, and now I am supposed to pull a fruit fly out of the hat. Nice, or tough, or a bit of both, or neither? I do not know anymore! I have not got a clue! I am not a Big Breezie. I just wanted to have a nice life at home with my family! This is too big!_

Below, Saltshaker giggled and dropped out of his mother's grip and waddled after the crawling larva, away from the light. Following his son's progress, Seabreeze's gaze drifted to the suits of armour gleaming from the darkness.

_Yes,_ he thought gloomily. _We are really doing this. Very well._

He sighed and opened his mouth to speak.


	11. Dragon Lily: The Gathering

Just behind the Fairy Ring clearing, framed by the outer toadstool houses, Vox Dragon Lily stood to attention and watched the shadows crisscrossing the open space. Every now and again, a grin twitched across her face.

All around her, the Flutter Ponies erected tiny tents and whipped Rhinoceros Beetles into place, scouring lines through the moss with the bark sleds. Teams hovered overhead, darting down to unload the sparkling leaves and pollen mounds. Others scuttled about, picking up twigs that littered the moss.

It was the perfect location. Looming over her back, the palace was gilded with wax and dried honey, and under the flames planted by her subjects, it gleamed. Right next to the gathering, the pond would allow the Enchanters of the River a good view. Better still, the pink glow of the Ring Portal – currently slowing to a stop, as it had engulfed most of the cliffside – was clearly visible. If only she could've dangled it on a hook over the gathering, she would have done so, but it was at least clearly visible there, a constant reminder of what she had accomplished.

Already, the first arrivals were landing. Most of the Nymphs flitted hither and thither, chatting amicably with their fellows. However, a detachment of many species came marching through the centre of the clearing, and her eyes snapped to them. She forced herself to keep her face straight.

_Charity Ponies,_ she thought irritably. _Of course. The "goody-goody-two-shoes" species would be the first, wouldn't they?_ Quickly, she planted a polite smile between her tusks and inclined her head as the dozen approached.

"To what do I owe this unexpected blessing?" she said, radiating as much keenness and charm as her leaning and slightly bowed body could.

The first three creatures she recognized at once. Lady Guardia of the Charity Ponies was an impressive specimen even by her species' standards: an anaemic tarantula of a fey being, with the folded wings of an albino dove and the sleek, pointed face of an alicorn in miniature. Levitating beside her furious glare as dutifully as a secretary, the toothpick wand sparkled. Its five-pointed star gleamed.

"Spare me your eel-like words," said Lady Guardia, waving one of her eight legs as though batting an offending spiel aside. "This territory is the sacred home of the Breezies, beholden to their power. This coup –"

"Liberation," corrected Dragon Lily. "There was no violence. It can hardly be classified as a 'coup'."

"You are trespassing and acting without the approval of the court, and against our time-honoured traditions. This is wrong. We feel that it would be best if you withdrew before the night returns, or the fey will be angry…"

Bored, Dragon Lily peered past the monologuing leader to the two flanking delegates. On the Charity Pony's right, the Nymph's ambassador – her memory coughed up the name "Bromeliad" – blushed and smiled apologetically. On the left stood the Viler Spirit ambassador. It had never been clear to her why they were called Viler Spirits. They seemed no worse than anyone else, especially when they were floating and staring at nothing and grinning as though in a blissful coma, like this one was doing.

Behind the leaders, the remaining nine were in various states of outrage, embarrassment, and zoning-out. Eventually, she noticed Lady Guardia had stopped talking.

"I understand, my lady." For good measure, she inclined her head. "This is a… controversial move, but I think you'll soon agree a necessary one."

"There should have been negotiations," said Lady Guardia, though now her voice sank back into a more respectful tone. "I appreciate you have your views, but the court is the first and final judge of such matters."

"I'm glad you agree. Yet is it not the case that one impeached by the court _also_ has the right to be heard? I fully intend to submit to the ruling. We are not barbarians, after all."

The dozen – except for the Viler Spirits, who were idly examining each others' hair – took in the long lines of tents, the smell of pollen and mushrooms, the flicker of flames being juggled, and the slight buzzing of Flutter Ponies trying to turn their wings into musical instruments. Some of the Nymphs were already dancing in the centre, their cape-like wings flashing with every colour of the rainbow.

"Ah…" murmured one of the Viler Spirits, who was a little more alert than her fellows. "The Faire is here for the court, yes?"

Dragon Lily shrugged, but under her tamed smile a wild beast grinned at the smell of audacity. "Merely preparations for the World Harvest. We cannot let _all_ the traditions slide, now can we? That would be chaos."

_You know what I'm doing,_ she thought grimly as Lady Guardia's face turned to steel. _The Faire shouldn't be prepared until the last Breezie comes through the Ring Portal. But what are you going to do about it? Not even you can resist a good run of merrymaking. You're just as fey as the rest of us. And it's hard to bluster about our trampling over traditions when there are fun and games to be had. _Traditional _fun and games. It's hard for me to look like a warmongering barbarian and a gracious host at the same time_.

She risked a small smirk. That was the point about being in the wrong. You'd entered the darkness and come back holding its leash while everyone else was still cowering at home. It was like charisma, turned inside out…

"And, as is traditional for the Faire," she said, giving the soup of their minds another thoughtful stir, "I will of course be preparing a speech to all those gathered. Since I am acting as host for the event…"

"Not so fast! You cannot hide your crimes behind bread and circuses. We'll see what the _court_ thinks about this," replied Lady Guardia, in the smug tones of one who'd peeked at the answers beforehand.

"I'd be _fascinated_ to know what they think," continued Dragon Lily, while around her the Flutter Ponies bustled on. "After all, this used to be a Breezie-only event. If the judgement is to be a fair one, they'll need a sample of what liberation means."

"I know what you're up to." Lady Guardia drew herself up to her full height. There were copious amounts of loom in it.

Suddenly, Dragon Lily was grateful the Charity Ponies didn't have fangs. Spidery as they looked, no one had ever heard of one doing anything aggressive, but on reflection that _wasn't_ a comforting thought.

Her gaze strayed to the wand floating in midair. There was something alive about the way it floated, as though it was silently watching and waiting. The wands were said to have minds of their own, like pet cats, and Charity Ponies didn't so much control them as amuse them enough to win their obedience, if the wands felt like giving it.

Dragon Lily braced herself. Then she smirked and leaned forwards, ignoring the fact that her head only came up to the lady's chin.

"Maybe you _do_ know what I'm up to. But what are you going to do about it?" she whispered.

Drawing back, she sidestepped around the dozen and gave them a respectful nod. Aloud, she said, "I am gratified that you have graced the hive with your presence. In the meantime, please excuse me. I have a Faire to attend to. Ah, I see our next round of guests is arriving."

Around them, the world faded away. A silvery mist bloomed, leaving her alone on a circle of moss and surrounded by moonlight. Shivers ran down her spine.

Rolling out of the mist was an apple. For a Flutter Pony, it was like seeing a boulder come out of nowhere. Instinctively, she ducked back… and the apple stopped.

Heavenly singing echoed through the mist. Slowly, silently, the wisps around her began to draw back…

She saw them emerge from the stalk over her head. Or perhaps "emerge" was the wrong word: one moment there was nothing, the next there were three figures and it seemed unaccountably obvious they'd been there the whole time, just on the edge of perception.

As the mist cleared, the sky froze into place. Candles slowed. Anything that measured time stopped in their presence.

They were called the Ones from the Otherworld. The last time she'd seen one, she hadn't even moulted into her legged form yet. Memories of them rose like the dead from the graves of her youth and lurked around her consciousness, haunting her mind.

If she'd had to describe them, the word "spectral" would've come to mind. They were too slim and graceful to be sullied with a word like "ghostly".

Once her senses came back, Dragon Lily bowed with all six legs and almost touched her forehead against the ground, tilting her antennae out of the way. Around her, she was aware of the world returning. When she dared to look up, there was only the apple. All three figures had drifted off to examine the nearest tent.

Burningrose drew up beside her. "Madam?" he whispered. "The 'ghost Breezies' have arrived."

She shushed him at once. "I never said that," she lied. It was never a good idea to upset the Ones from the Otherworld. Their punishments tended to be _metaphysical;_ she'd heard stories of unlucky beings who'd gone to sleep and woken up to find a hundred years had gone by.

"Steer them away from any food or drink," she whispered back. "If they touch anything, don't let anyone else have it. Burn it if necessary."

"Madam?"

"Just do what I say!"

He scurried off. Already, the Nymphs near the Ones flashed in alarm and turned into drifting leaves or puddles of water. Apparently, it was a self-defence mechanism. Hopefully, they'd turn back in time for the speech.

Her gaze crossed the perimeter, and snapped to attention. Someone was lurking in the tiny trees.

Dragon Lily smiled. Breezie wings were so hard to hide.

The Faire was in full swing now. Here, a Flutter Pony juggler threw sparkling fireballs, to the clapping of fey children. There, another of her hive passed thimbles full of magic water to the gathered spirits, who chatted eagerly: words like "exquisite" and "got a kick to it" and "will we drink like this every day" reached her ears. A space opened up in the centre of the Faire, and creatures of all species were dancing and clapping and singing and laughing.

She was shocked to find it wasn't just the plan anymore. Actual enjoyment crept into her chest, as though she were watching larvae at play.

At the perimeter, the Breezies broke cover and charged.

Dragon Lily didn't so much as blink. Surprise tingled in her head, though. There were only two of them, and the one was far more wide-eyed and had more foam around her mouth than the other.

At once, the squads of Flutter Pony guards appeared from seemingly everywhere and closed in on the running figures. The leading Breezie was screaming something in her own native tongue. _Too bad the translators are currently occupied,_ she thought.

The screaming Breezie barely reached the first tents when the moss sprang up and snatched at her legs.

Dragon Lily frowned.

All the Flutter Pony guards hung back, confused. What looked like a scattering of pebbles unfurled, and the stone creatures launched themselves on top of the struggling Breezie.

Out of nowhere, someone lobbed a small stone, which ricocheted off the Breezie's head. It was not large enough or hard enough to do more than stun her briefly, but it was enough. Within seconds, she was buried under a sentient landslide. The moss rose up to smother it all.

"Excuse me," Dragon Lily hissed, marching up to the pile. "This is _Flutter Pony_ business."

One of the moss mounds turned and bowed to her. One of the "stones" did likewise.

"Excuse us, Vox," said the moss mound. "My boys haven't had a chance like this for a long time."

Dragon Lily glared at him, but then remembered herself and neutralized her facial muscles. "Oh, it's you, Mudstick. I wasn't sure whether the Brown Foals would even come out of the forest."

"Neither were we," he replied coolly. He spoke as though gargling pieces of gravel. "You think you're doing this world a service, but in my experience, no one ever does something without wanting something else in return."

"Mudstick!" she said, trying to sound affronted. "What price for a bloodless revolution?"

"Hmm." His twiggy legs creaked as they bent under his pelt of moss. "We shall find out."

Dragon Lily expelled him at once from her mind, which wasn't hard as he soon turned to hold the struggling captive down, and she smiled instead at the "stone". Behind him, the second Breezie slumped under the surrounding glares of Flutter Ponies.

"And you, Chief Sun Crow?" she said.

The thing resembled nothing more than a foal's attempt to carve an earth pony out of a brick. Were it not for size, cragginess, stiff jerking movements, and the reflective black pools that passed for eyes, he would've made a respectable toy figure.

"We Joggers? We're _very_ interested. We're interested to know what you've got to say for yourself," he said gruffly.

"All in good time. But until then, I hold authority here, and the security arrangements are mine to… well, _arrange_."

"Until then," he said stiffly, "there will be no further disturbances. Anyway, you cannot complain about a tribe taking matters into its own hooves."

She refused to rise to the bait, but Chief Sun Crow's name was added to a private list of hers. "Well spoken, Chief. Take the intruders and place them in the dungeons until I send for them again."

"Or until the Breezies come back." Chief Sun Crow waved a stony hoof and his fellows slipped back into the crowds. Flutter Ponies swarmed over the two Breezies before they could start screaming and fighting back.

Dragon Lily watched the guards drag her new prisoners away, and then shrugged. Crisis over, the music and talk of the Faire came back. She hadn't even realized it had stopped.

After she about-turned and marched away, she could hear the whisperings of the fey beings around her. _Good, _she thought. _This little stunt by the Breezies is exactly what I want them to see_.

When all was said and done, she at least hadn't "attacked" anyone but her intended target, the Breezie tribe. Jumping out at a gathering of all the major fey families, now, _that_ was something else. Perhaps they were mad riot-mongers, or were unskilled assassins, or had gone berserk and planned to destroy everything out of spite. Thank goodness her guards had protected everyone, et cetera, et cetera…

Walking around the Faire to the puddle at the base of the palace, she narrowed her eyes and groaned. Larvae and wingless white Flutter Ponies gathered along the shoreline. As they watched, splashes and spouts of water came from the surface.

_Of course,_ she thought joylessly. _The Enchanters. Why on earth not?_

Pink dolphins the size of minnows leaped out of the water. On the banks, however, they flopped and became pink pony-like creatures. The newcomers stood up and strode into the waiting crowd, flashing grins and showing off dark tuxedoes and opera capes. Every single one had a top hat on his or her head. They were always snappy dressers; it made it easier for them to snap up unsuspecting victims.

Quickly, she strode to the first of the newcomers, who was showing a dazzling grin to the giggling Flutter Ponies nearest him.

"Ah, my dear!" he said, reaching for her nearest leg and bending down to kiss it. "So _you_ are the one who has stirred up the hornet's nest!"

A twinkle winked back at her from each of his eyes. It was all she could do to beat it out of her head, and she yanked her leg out of his grip.

"There will be no enchantments," she growled, "while I have complete authority here."

"A little birdie-dog told me that's a matter of opinion." More of his posse crowded around to pull faces, and a ring near the back hummed and whistled. The four nearest Enchanters echoed in song: "OOOOO… piiiiiiiin… iooooooooon."

"What do you want?" she said wearily.

"I want what every other species wants," replied the Enchanter, lifting his top hat briefly – she cringed at the obvious blowhole on his bald scalp – "and what every other species wants, really wants deep down, is a little slice of the cake. After all, aren't we all looking out for our own good souls?"

"Ooouurr ooowwwnnn goooood sooouuuulllls," chorused the quartet.

Dragon Lily fought to keep her concentration. The humming and the whistling slithered through her brain the moment she stopped shaking her head.

"Desist from your enchantments," she said loudly and clearly. "_By order_."

"As you wish, my dear Vox." To his fellows, he added, "You know the rules, my friends. The ruler of this land has _ordered_ us. No improv for tonight."

"Noooooo improoooov for toniiiiiiight," chorused the quartet. When he glared at them sidelong, they tightened their lips and looked away. All but he fell silent.

"But let's not lord or lady it over anyone else," he said to her, and the twinkle within each eye flared for a moment. "We're equal under the sun, ain't I right? Now, you're in a heap of a predicament, I can tell. This little invasion thing doesn't look too good from where I'm standing."

Dragon Lily groaned inwardly, but then a thought struck her. Despite his cool demeanour, she could sense the Enchanters behind him glancing up at the pink glow in the distance. This time, she added extra warmth to her smile.

"Perhaps a change of scenery might let you see another angle to this… predicament," she said.

"You read my mind. Of course, tangible proof that there are benefits to this little scheme of yours would be considered a mitigating factor. Nothing underhanded, of course."

"Of course not. And, as a water-based species, you would of course be entitled to _special_ considerations concerning…" She held her breath, and waited for them all to lean closer. "… what to do with the Ring Portal."

Now he wasn't even trying to hide the hunger in his face. Enchanters had heard legends of oceans in the Big World. The best _this_ world could offer was a really big pond. Besides, the Enchanters were notorious for trying to sneak into the other world; there were stories about their attempts to break the barriers down.

"Much obliged," he said with a wink, and the party moved past him. "This might turn out to be a blessing in disguise."

"I hope so." She waited until he'd sauntered off into the crowd, and then tried very hard not to retch. The stink of fish hung in the air after him.

There were definitely more species around now, but she had to be sure. They _all_ needed to be here for this to work. Dragon Lily buzzed up her wings and rose over the Faire, picking out shape after shape in the dusk.

Her gaze alighted to one corner, near the forest. Folding her wings up, she threw her legs forwards and braced herself for the drop. Someone tried to throw a small stone at her, but she spread her wings and caught the air just in time. She let the projectile sail below her clawed, dangling feet.

"_No throwing!_ Let's have some _decorum_, please!" she hissed, landing on a pile of leaves which turned back into Nymphs and scurried away.

A scraggly creature creaked and winced its way over to her, hobbling on three legs while a fourth weighed up another stone to throw. Yet, despite its body being a mass of wrinkles and its wings being crumpled stubs behind its withers, the creature's head was round and squishy and mostly made up of two shiny eyes, like a baby's.

_So we have the Chaneques in. That just leaves two more species to go…_

"It's habit," said the creature in a cutesy voice, and giggled.

"Nevertheless, this is an important occasion. Ah, and I see you have company."

Another dozen approached, but where the previous set had bristled or squirmed or giggled at unseen things, this set strode and strutted and vibrated with excitement. At the front was the Grand High Curupira, a peccary of red fur and flaming mane, loping along and squealing.

The Grand High Curupira skidded to a halt and raised a hoof. She shuddered; the cleft of said hoof pointed backwards. It never seemed natural to her, no matter how many times she'd seen it before.

"_We have travelled,_" he said in his native tongue, "_a long way to be here tonight. Honoured to meet you, fellow guardian._"

"Burningrose!?" she shouted quickly.

He landed beside her and jumped into action at once. After a brief exchange, he turned to her and translated.

"There are many prey animals in the Big World," she said, quickly shaking the Curupira's hoof and then just as quickly letting go. "Who knows what good your tribe could do out in the wilds? Maybe this will be a historical occasion for the Curupira too."

Burningrose translated, rushing through the words until the Curupira and his followers squealed in delight.

Dragon Lily peered past him. "Ah, and I see you brought –"

"We brought ourselves," intoned the Empress. Alone amongst the other species, she resembled the big ponies in every particular – thickness, head proportions, even in having cutie marks – save for size. A headdress like the rising sun shone on her head, and when she spoke, the fan of feathers fluttered. "We are of course allies of the brave and the bold."

Dragon Lily bowed at once. "It is an honour to be greeted by the Empress of Alux. My hive is not worthy of such a divine presence."

The guard of spears and axes stood to attention behind the Empress, who continued, "The Charity Ponies are feeble and weak, just like the Breezies. We will no longer be denied our right to guard the hallowed farmlands of the Big World, and none shall oppose our will any longer."

"I had no intention of doing so," said Dragon Lily, bowing again. "In fact, with the Flutter Ponies in charge of the Ring Portal, we would be pleased – nay, eager – to extend a special service to the Alux –"

"This is not about services!" snapped the Empress. "You must win. You have the drive and the courage to show the other species how things should be ordered and disciplined. This is your destiny, Pioneer, and you will _not_ ruin it. Or else."

Every last one of the spears pointed at her throat. If she'd swallowed too quickly, she'd have ended up with a cheesegrater for a neck.

Despite her inner outrage, Dragon Lily gulped. "Aheheh. Not at all. Not at all."

The Empress snorted and beckoned her followers to her. As one, they lowered their spears. With a sidelong glare, the Empress strode past her, while her entourage forced Dragon Lily to sidestep out of their way.

_That makes the whole set,_ she thought once the dozen moved on. Trying to calm her own breathing, she turned to Burningrose, who was twitchy and kept glancing at the large hill.

"Is the podium prepared?" she said.

"Yes, Vox."

"Excellent. Excellent work. Then I think it's time I stand trial." For the first time in a long time, her tusks clicked together. Something gleamed in her eyes. "It's time they know what I'm working for and why. History will be made here, Burningrose. And _I_ will be the one making it."

For a moment, a flicker passed his eyes. "You mean 'we' will? Erm, Vox?"

Fires burned through her mind. "Is there a problem, Burningrose?"

"No, Vox! No problem at all! Not from me!"

The fires went out. "That's better. Of course, I bring glory to the entire Flutter Pony hive, which is more than that rogue Tailblade ever managed. But enough of this petty bickering. Let us, ah, _enlighten_ the court."


	12. Vox Tailblade: The Speech

Under cover of the tiny trees, Tailblade pulled on the bindweed and winced. Below her, the Flutter Pony guard writhed and flexed against his bonds. He glared up at her.

Quickly, she ducked down and rubbed her forelegs over his face. Tying her own mane back and snipping the ends was all very well, but Flutter Ponies ran a lot of their lives in a world of smell. Someone else's pheromones would at least buy her some time. She rubbed it over herself vigorously, crinkling her wings as she worked down her own back.

The Breezie – stringing together the syllables she'd heard, Tailblade had figured out her name was "Zephyrine" – crumpled her own gigantic wings into a tight ball, wincing as she did so. Tailblade remembered the talks from her old master, of how the Breezies had wings so sensitive they could feel a dust mote from a hundred yards away. To see one crunch its own wings like this made her wince in turn.

Gently, she reached across and patted the creature on the shoulder. It flinched, caught her eye, and then relaxed and let her carry on.

"I don't think you can understand me," she said in Flutter Pony, "but if you can, then please know I am grateful for what you're doing."

The Breezie – _Zephyrine,_ she corrected herself – just gave a wan smile that could've meant anything. Tailblade moved forwards with the bindweed and wrapped the ball of gossamer wings until not a speck could be seen.

Lying beside them, two bundles of wrapped grass shivered and giggled. Quickly, she shushed them and tapped each one to stop it squirming. One obeyed immediately, but the other began to moan and sniffle.

"Uh oh," she said, as the Breezie rounded on her. She backed off, forelimbs in the air like a shield. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't mean anything! I swear!"

Zephyrine kneeled down and whispered, and soon the bundle was calming down and falling quiet. Unheard by anyone, Tailblade let out a sigh of relief.

_This is insane,_ she thought. _We're going to get caught, or worse. This can't possibly work. _Nervously, she rubbed some more pheromone onto herself and went to the edge of the perimeter to watch. By now, the crowd of species had gathered in the centre of the Faire, and she could see Dragon Lily rising onto a makeshift podium of stacked pebbles.

Her eyes narrowed to slits. _Dragon Lily. I can't believe it. You little thief._

Even from all the way out here, the voice of the new Vox was clear and unmistakeable. Translators echoed in their own tongues around her, but still her voice broke through the hubbub.

"My fellows and fey spirits! Honoured guests of the Flutter Ponies! Great powers… of the court. We come in many guises, as spirits… as guardians… as creatures of the earth… as avatars of the divine! My intentions these past few days have been questioned! But there is, ultimately, no need for concern!"

Zephyrine threw a patch of moss over her own back. Hastily, the Breezie tucked her own antennae out of sight beneath a cap of green, and Tailblade leaned in. As carefully as she could, and horribly aware of how close she was to the breaths of the creature's small mouth, the Flutter Pony snipped. Zephyrine blinked instinctively. All the eyelashes fell to the ground, completing the disguise.

"I am not a conqueror for the Flutter Pony tribe. I am a servant of the fey, of all of you! I am descended from the same Fey Ponies you are, I enjoy the same enchanted fruits, and I sing as merely one of many in the grand chorus of our world!"

Both of them slipped the bundles over their backs – and under the moss, in Zephyrine's case – nodded, and flexed their limbs.

They slipped along the perimeter until only the Flutter Pony guards hovering overhead could've seen them, and then stepped out. For appearances' sake, Tailblade prodded the Breezie in the rump, forcing her to go a little faster.

The guards, simply seeing one of their own chastise an errant fey, turned back to the speech.

"Poetry," yelled Dragon Lily, "the creation of the dancing stones, the playing of the panpipes… our tribes rely on the life and strength of these forces no less than we rely on magic. Without them, we would grow sick and old. So tell me, my fellows; how can we best feed and nurture this spirit? By hiding from inspiration? By pretending there's nothing new? By denying those frontiers that already give us so much to be thankful for?"

Anger flared through Tailblade as she approached the back of the crowd. Nearby, a Viler Spirit broke out of its trance for a moment to peer at her curiously.

_Denial, she says. We don't need another world for that. There's a Ringfort right there, brimming with art, and no one but the Breezies sees it. If we don't care for what we have anyway, then getting more isn't going to help._

Even as she thought it, though, a dribble of guilt pooled under the flames and smothered the base, leaving her cold. Around her, most of the crowd nodded in agreement, though the Charity Ponies folded their front two limbs and continued glaring.

On the podium, Dragon Lily threw a leg up, punching the air. "The longer we stagnate, the sicker our world becomes. This is no longer about denying ourselves a better future, with more joy and more discovery and more potential to help and to be helped. This is about _having_ a future."

_Those pictures in the darkness,_ thought Tailblade. Old Lightningfish used to talk about the Fey Ponies. There had been tales about the Grey, which of course no one had believed and which she herself used to think of as amusing just-so stories.

But seeing the armour, and the paintings, and the way that old Breezie had spoken about them with the light dancing in his eyes… It reminded her. Of her old excitement, when she'd been but a grub. When she'd first heard another tribe's tales for the first time, and realized there were other ways of looking and thinking and even of living. When the idea had popped into her head like a disgraceful childhood dream, the idea of being a hero. Not part of a heroic tribe, but of being one hero.

On her back, the larva shifted slightly. Zephyrine nudged her and they both slipped through the crowd.

"Long ago," continued Dragon Lily, "the Breezies began the tradition of the Forage. They told us the Big World was a dangerous place, even for them. But they had a chance. Their magic would guide them. Their giant allies would guide them. Their learning and instinct and magical talents would guide them. No one else could be trusted with the task of gathering all the ingredients for our world and sanctifying them. Well, I am here to tell you _they were wrong!_"

They knocked a Brown Foal, who rounded on them, growling. Zephyrine opened her mouth to apologize, but barely had the first Breezie syllable escaped her lips when Tailblade smacked her across the shoulder.

"Clumsy oaf," she said, ignoring the glare this earned her. To the Brown Foal, she said in a softer voice, "My apologies. I will keep an eye on this fool."

Grumbling, the creature turned back to hear more of the speech.

They both wiped their brows and stepped forwards. A glance told them that this was the ideal spot: right in the centre of the crowd. To Tailblade's left, another Flutter Pony yawned and covered his mouth with a clawed leg.

"Get to the good stuff," he murmured, and he gave a sniff.

Trying to deepen her voice, she whispered, "Relax. It's just to soften them up for it."

"Yeah, I know. You're right. Just wish it didn't take so long to do."

She hummed in agreement, and then met Zephyrine's eye. Her own fear reflected back at her.

"It's about time we knew the truth!" On her podium, Dragon Lily's wings flared in outrage. "And how can we do that when the Breezies are too proud and too idle and too stupid to try anything different? It's time we found out for ourselves! I did not wish to take down the Breezies! I wished to stop arrogant fools from ignoring us and letting us slide to our doom! If they will not talk to us, we cannot talk back! We must show them that we have _drive!_" She glanced at a headdress on the front row, and continued. "And we have courage, and we do not give in to easy answers and self-interested lies! We must humble ourselves enough to let the truth talk to us, even if we have to venture into the unknown realm to do it!"

Both Tailblade and Zephyrine reached back for their bundles. Zephyrine's leg was shaking. Tailblade spared one of her own to steady it. The shaking stopped.

_I know. These are young lives. But right now, do you trust yourself? Do you trust the others? Do you trust me?_

"So let us not cower and hide and look for props to keep us upright, like foolhardy Breezies! Let us stand tall and face the world! Let us walk into the Big World and find out what happens when we are not held back by ignorance. Let us discover the world! Let us express ourselves to it. I will take my punishment as the court sees fit, but let it not be forgotten what that punishment represents, and what I risked it for!"

Both bundles came out. Tailblade sighed. It had been so long since she'd been in a mission like this one. Her active life had ended the day she'd faced Burningrose and risen to the title of "Vox". Right now, she felt so alive.

A slip and a drop of the fabric, and the pair stepped back and waited. It didn't take long: seconds later, one of the Chaneques looked down and pointed.

"Breezie!" it garbled in its oddly babyish voice.

Murmurs and mutterings spread out from the middle, and bodies drew back or drifted up and out of range. Gambolling between the legs, Saltshaker and the larva gabbled and giggled and occasionally bounced off someone.

Flutter Ponies rose up in a buzzing wave. The one next to Tailblade almost knocked her back under the turbulence, and she reluctantly patted Zephyrine on the shoulder and flew up too, blending in.

On the podium, she could see Dragon Lily's body stiffening. Burningrose cracked his leg like a whip.

"Seize it!" he cried out. "It's a saboteur!"

The guards drifted closer, but she could see the nearest ones exchanging glances. The translator's cry had expected a Breezie launching an attack, but their eyes were seeing a Breezie playing with a larva, and the latter was exuding tons of happiness and excitement. Two pathways collided in their heads. They were hesitant.

"It's a baby!" she cried out, remembering too late to modulate her voice.

All around, the murmurs and mutterings took on an edge. Ordering an attack on a baby was Just Not Done. There was no way Burningrose could've known from that range, and some of the brighter fey had worked out the error and given him sympathetic looks, but they were the exceptions. Most fey acted on impulse.

"We do _not_ attack babies," said a Nymph, and Tailblade immediately recognized Bromeliad, who was twisting her own locks of hair through sheer nerves.

"Is this how the Flutter Pony tribe operates?" shouted Lady Guardia, towering over their heads effortlessly. "Attacking the young on a whim? You ought to be ashamed of yourselves!"

"Please, please!" Dragon Lily waved a leg airily. "This is simply a misunderstanding! Of course we do not attack young. Burningrose here simply has the safety of the fey foremost on his mind."

"Then how could he have known it was a saboteur? I heard him say so!"

"Not all the Breezies were captured when we took control of the Fairy Ring. I assure you this was nothing more than a momentary error, easily corrected –"

Smooth as it was, Tailblade smirked at the slight edge to the new Vox's tone. _They're going to force her into allowing it. And once you allow one Breezie in, the question turns to: What about the others?_

"As I was _saying!_" Dragon Lily snapped her tusks, and the guards settled back down. Tailblade sank into the crowd, apologizing to a Charity Pony she bumped, who graciously stepped aside to allow her some room.

_Three… two… one… _She craned her head around, peering over her shoulder. The horizon glowed orange, but was disquietingly empty.

"Come on…" she murmured.

"I'm sorry?" A Flutter Pony neighbour faced her.

"With the speech," she continued hurriedly. "I want to get to the good stuff."

To her horror, the guard peered closer at her face. "You smell strange. Like Matchstick, but pungent. What's your name?"

"Don't you recognize me?" she bluffed, trying not to sweat as she scanned the horizon. _Still nothing. They should've made a move by now._

"That's the thing." A flicker of black: the stinger unsheathed itself from the abdomen. The Flutter Pony curled around and aimed at her face. "I have the funniest feeling I do."

"A friend?" she ventured, starting to back away.

"No." The guard crouched low, cracked the joints in its legs. "An enemy…"

For a brief, wonderful moment, she spotted Zephyrine's face in the crowd and made eye contact. The Breezie nodded, and disappeared.

Seconds later, the Breezie darted forwards, throwing off her moss and the bindweed. Both settled on the face of a Viler Spirit, which giggled at something radical going on in its head and so didn't notice.

Before even the closest creatures had opened their mouths, Zephyrine gasped as hard as she could and shouted something in her own tongue. It echoed across the clearing and cut through a gap in the Vox's speech.

With the patient dutifulness of a dullard, one of the translators switched track and shouted: "My baby!"

Once again, the crowd parted, this time accompanied by angry yells and frightened screams. Several flashes indicated where the Nymphs switched to pebbles and flowers and pieces of bark. Chaneques threw stones up in the air, and Brown Foals ducked and ploughed through the crowds, knocking over anyone too slow to dodge or sidestep their charging bodies.

"A Breezie!" shouted one of the Enchanters. "It's one of those saboteurs!"

The guard, distracted, turned away from Tailblade. She zipped around it and quickly lost herself to the crowd, jumped over a passing Brown Foal, and almost nicked herself on the spear of an Alux.

Burningrose glanced up, but this time the Vox wasn't interested.

Instead, Dragon Lily yelled, "Guards! Arrest the intruder!"

"It's the baby's mother!" Tailblade shouted. She ducked under a floating One and cupped her front legs to her mouth. This time, she deepened her voice and shouted: "Yeah! It's a mother!"

"A mother?"

"What's she doing way out here?"

"The Breezies might be pulling a trick."

"What? Just the one?"

"Look, she's picking up that baby!"

Tailblade didn't try and look; she'd seen enough to catch the shine of Zephyrine's eyes. Those tears weren't entirely fake.

_At least I have the other Flutter Ponies to keep an eye on the little larva_, she thought, and the guilt bit into her. Carefully, she ducked under another hovering guard, who dropped back down without waiting for an order, or even for the chatter to die down.

"Why," said Lady Guardia, and even at this distance and over this noise, her voice was clear as a bell, "are we only hearing the Flutter Pony side of the story, anyway? Why shouldn't we have Breezies here? Don't the Breezies have a say?"

This was met with grumblings. Shamefully, a part of Tailblade didn't blame them. Breezies had avoided sullying themselves with the court for a long time. No one shy of a generous Charity Pony was about to hand them a free pass.

"The Breezies waived their right to a say on the court the moment they stopped attending to it!" said Dragon Lily, and instantly the crowd broke out into squabbles.

"That was never actually official."

"Doesn't necessarily mean we should snub them back."

"Oh, _shouldn't_ we? Is that a fact?"

"Maybe there's more to this. Maybe they had a point."

"But she's a mother –"

"Order! Order, please!" Dragon Lily flared her wings, but she was losing to the roar of sound. She might as well have shouted at crashing waves on a beach.

Tailblade jumped up and joined the hovering guards in their circle. All of them watched as Zephyrine stood, alone and defiant, in the middle of a ring with her baby in her limbs, clutching it as though it were a lifebelt. Beside her, the larva was headbutting any part it could reach, and more larvae and wingless Flutter Ponies crawled or slithered into the gap, sniffing and clicking their tusks. After all, one of their own was radiating pleasure, and the smell was the nasal equivalent of a beacon.

Finally, on the horizon, a pair of silhouettes gleamed against the orange light.

_Three… two… one…_ Tailblade turned back to the crowd, deepened her voice, and screamed as loudly and theatrically as she dared. All eyes fell upon her. At once, she pointed.

Now the crowd erupted. Noise and flashes and the crisscrossing of bodies fighting to get in each other's way blinded her and struck her senses until she almost fell.

The figures stood to attention, one dressed in gleaming white armour, the other dressed in black. One of them waved cheerfully.

The Fey Ponies.

No one would dare put on such armour. It was what the plan hinged on. Fortunately, this mental block was fully at work, by the sounds of things. She could hear them whispering below her.

"The Fey Ponies! Light and Dark!"

"They're here! They're watching us!"

"It's a judgement! It's a sign! The Fey Ponies are furious! We've disturbed their enchanted ground!"

"Nonsense! It's their, uh, their endorsement, of course!" tried one of the Enchanters, and he cringed as the others began to shout him down.

"_Endorsement?_ You mean like last time this happened? Against all our knowledge and wisdom of what this means?"

"_Now_ who's speaking nonsense!?"

Unfortunately, Dragon Lily was quicker off the mark. Her leg pointed like an arrow.

"Guards! Investigate!" She turned back to the crowd as the droning disappeared. "My fellow fey! There is no cause for alarm!"

"No cause!?" roared the Empress of Alux. "Do you realize what entities, what power, has been summoned here tonight? You can see for yourself! The starlit gleam of the white, the light-eating power of the black, is known to all of us. None would dare to move the cursed armour. This is outrageous!"

Now there was sweat glistening on Dragon Lily's brow. _Aha,_ thought Tailblade. _She's one of your strongest supporters, isn't she? If you lose her, you slowly lose everything –_

"Perhaps it's an enchantment," lied another one of the Enchanters, but he was fooling nobody. Every species knew about the armour of the Fey Ponies. Even to attempt a magical copy was to court an early death. More of the fey were sinking into a sullen silence. Down below, Zephyrine merged with the rest of the crowd, half-buried under a dogpile of young Flutter Ponies, and forgotten by even the neighbouring fey.

And then, right into Tailblade's ear, one of the guards murmured, "Hello, Vox."

She barely had time for shock when the ball of stripes and legs crunched into her. Dozens of Flutter Ponies swarmed her and filled her vision.

Every guard knew the hot ball trick. She'd passed it on herself from Old Lightningfish. Stifling heat rushed into her. Dozens of wings beat and bodies shook and, bit by bit, her outsides cooked, and just when it crossed a threshold and she opened her mouth to scream, the ball broke away and the guards scattered.

Tailblade fell, and someone's clawed legs snagged under her forelimbs. Her body radiated heat. Every bit felt sore and shaken. No muscles responded, in spite of the frantic signals coming from the back of her mind.

Dimly, she was aware of voices and of the air flowing past her. Struggling, her eyes opened wider. Dragon Lily's sneering grin greeted her. Then, she was turned around to face the rest of the fey.

"Behold the renegade!" Dragon Lily shouted, and a few faces turned away from the distant silhouettes to refocus. "My predecessor kept us mired for years and years, plodding through the same unthinking tedium…"

Tailblade forced herself to straighten up, but the heat fought back and she slumped again in the stranger's grip. Once more, she felt a larva-like desire to curl up somewhere and hide. Eventually, Dragon Lily switched tracks, and new life entered the new Vox's voice.

"We Flutter Ponies," she began, "are united under a single identity. We wish to go through the Ring Portal together, with you all! But this whelp? She represents the dark extreme on the other side, the one who wants the glory and the pleasures all to herself. In her own way, she is worse than the Breezies!"

It was as if she had no wings, no armour, not even any legs. Tailblade simply dangled, still not entirely sure she was herself, and winced under each blow. The distant figures closed in around the Fey Pony armour, which turned each head up to watch them. From the depths of her despair, a hope rose up that the last two Breezies would make it out in one piece.

"She is, in short, a snob, a charge that has been levelled against my kind and which I now level against Breeziedom!"

The distant figures of the investigating guards hovered around the armour, obstructing her view of the same. Feebly, she forced her mouth to open, but the word lodged in her throat. _Snob?_

At the back of her mind, the ghost of Old Lightningfish shook its head at her. She glanced down to Burningrose, but his wings flushed red with embarrassment, and he had his back turned to her… or to Dragon Lily. They were both behind him now. In either case, he was not translating with the gestures and firm voice he'd been using some time ago.

In the crowd, though, Zephyrine's face stood out, a drop of water on barren ground. Perhaps the Breezie knew what she really was. That wide-eyed, focused look could have meant anything, though.

At the front, the Viler Spirit ambassador – she recognized her as "Jelly Salve Jar", or something similar – woke with a snort and struggled to raise a hoof. Initially, Dragon Lily droned on and over her, but soon the other fey were noticing and raising their own forelegs.

One of the distant investigators flung itself around and began growing; she knew the guard must be hurrying back.

"Yes?" said Dragon Lily, finally unable to ignore the raised limbs any longer.

"I think…" murmured Jelly Salve Jar, focusing blearily on Tailblade, "the old Vox wants to say something."

"Yes," Tailblade said, cutting across Dragon Lily. "I'd like to speak too."

A flurry of interest rushed through the crowd. Coughing slightly, and ignoring the drone of the Flutter Pony holding her up, she glanced across at the stiffly inattentive Burningrose, and parted her lips.

"I think I understand where my friend is coming from," she said, and paused to take a deep breath. "It is true. Everything about me. Listening to Dragon Lily, I realize now that I am not fit to be a Vox. I came here to sneak through the portal, for no better reason than to be the first to do so. I abandoned my hive for nothing more than a _selfish, personal glory_, and those who act for themselves bring shame upon themselves."

Dragon Lily smirked and nodded graciously. A rush of venom coursed through Tailblade's head, and she slapped away the clawed legs holding her up. With a smack, her clawed feet hit the ground next to the podium.

"I am no friend of the Breezies," she continued. Before her, the translators gabbled on, and glancing over the crowd, she thought the face of Zephyrine appeared through the mass of ears and eyes and mouths. "And it is true about them too. They are cowardly and have held us back. That is why I was so determined to defy them."

_And that's why both my hive and me are wrong. We never tried talking to them because we didn't think they'd listen. We didn't think they'd changed too. WE were just as guilty of being snobs as they were._

Tailblade thought she saw, at the back of her mind, Old Lightningfish nod with approval. Certainly, in the crowd, the Flutter Pony supporters were fighting their way through to get to her. Old Lightningfish always said that was a sign that she was doing something right.

"That's why I'd like us to try again. Let us talk to the Breezies. I saw one play Hive Versus Hive with a Flutter Pony, and" – _Forfeit,_ she thought insistently – "play in a way I never thought possible. _Think_ in a way I never thought possible. They have the capacity to change. They are individuals, and yet part of a group too. They deserve to have their say. Whatever our grievances against them, they are fey, just like us. Maybe they have seen the error of their ways, as I have done."

There were murmurings in the crowd, but at least some of the faces were twisted in contemplation. Angry faces turned to the nearest Flutter Pony guards, who blinked in surprise and stared up at her pleadingly.

She looked up in time to see the approaching investigator zoom up and whisper something to Dragon Lily. The Vox's face turned white.

"What do you mean there's no one inside them?" she said, and realized too late how loud her voice was.

Stunned silence fell across the clearing as several worst fears were confirmed. Wide eyes focused. Then, with typical bad timing, a Chaneque chose that moment to throw a stone.


	13. Seabreeze: The Big Breezie

Seabreeze could tell it was going wrong as soon as he reached the edge of the clearing. Most of the fey chatted and shuffled about and occasionally lashed out, cast enchantments, or threw stones at each other. Flutter Ponies that failed to get out of the swarm found themselves getting dragged backwards and smothered. Even the guards floating overhead were looking blankly at the podium for instructions.

Branches snapped behind him. He turned around in time to see Hugglenut and Piffle crashing through the tiny trees to catch up. Bindweed and twigs trailed from their limbs.

"They calm yet?" said Hugglenut, but not with much enthusiasm.

"This is an appalling act of desecration," snapped Piffle, and he threw his bindweed strands as far away from himself as possible. "Taking armour out of that Ringfort…"

"I thought it would impress them," Seabreeze snapped back. Over this distance, the crowd was an amorphous blob, and he couldn't see any sign of Zephyrine. "Everyone respects the Fey Ponies. If it looks like their spirits are here, then it gives us the final say. No one can argue against the anger of the Fey Ponies. So stop going on about it!"

"There will be _words_ later, do you understand? This marionette business is going too far." Piffle glared at the abandoned twigs entangled in bindweed.

"Oh, what's the point?" sighed Hugglenut. He fell back onto his haunches with a thump. "Look at 'em. It's only making them angrier. That's exactly what we didn't want."

It was true that the creatures in the crowd were growing more animated; waves and splashes ripped across it like bees over a hive. The shouting was getting louder, and curses tore through the air. Even the booming voice of Dragon Lily struggled against the uproar.

Seabreeze glanced at the morose Hugglenut, and for a moment a spark of fellow feeling lit up his chest. Clearly, the Breezie still had Milktears on his mind, though no one was about to say so. Then he glanced at the scowl of Piffle.

"This isn't working," said the old Breezie. "They're only going to accuse us of trickery. I suggest we cut our losses and leave now."

"_What? Wh-Wh-Why?_" spluttered Seabreeze.

"Leave. That's what we Breezies do. Run away somewhere. Be safe. Hide."

"Who are we kidding?" murmured Hugglenut to the moss. "We've got nothing. It's left us for good. I know it's hard, but we just gotta accept it and move on."

There was something attractive about the idea. Running and hiding was in their bones. They were weak, their wings were obvious targets, and they were no more built for fighting than a dandelion seed was built for sturdiness. If they survived at all, it was either because they kept out of the way or because they were useful. _That's what it must have been like for us in the Big World long ago,_ he thought.

The fire rose up inside him.

"Then get lost," he spat suddenly. Both of them looked up. "I did not spend all night planning this out just so you could muck it up for me. I am going to find my family. I am not going to be told what to do on my own land. So if you do not want to come, then I will do this _myself!_"

And with that, he flipped over and, ignoring their protests, launched himself at the crowd.

As soon as he cleared the perimeter and swept across the clearing, the Flutter Ponies rounded on him. Yet so chaotic was the crowd that only six managed to break away long enough to close in.

It seemed to him that the path from trees to crowd stretched further and further away the closer and closer he came. There were the guards, about to clench around him like the fingers of a giant hand. There was the dust cloud, blooming under all the scuffles and flashes of magic in the crowd. And somewhere in there, he could imagine Saltshaker, squealing in fright.

_I am insane, I am insane, I am insane,_ he thought in a delirious moment of clarity. _Breezies never do this. This is not even like being nice. This is me trying to kill myself. They will capture me, and Dragon Lily will still be Vox, and she is too smart to trust me anywhere but in a deep, dark hole with no escape._

All thought drifted away. Seabreeze's brow furrowed. From within his chest came a roaring certainty, and if it could speak, then it would've shouted: _No! I am the Big Breezie. Who are YOU?_

The first guard shot towards him and snapped its tusks. Seabreeze had enough sense to leap up, stretch his wings, and catch the turbulence punching past. With barely a flick, he swept around the second guard's lunge like a stray leaf, swept over a third, and then curled and spiralled in an eddy before he hit the moss, tumbled, and fell into the dust cloud.

_All right, I AM still a Breezie. No one said I had to_ fight.

Beside him, a trio of Nymphs squealed and transformed into a pile of leaves. He turned away from them, and was knocked back by a guard trying to snap at his puffy tail. Another almost landed on top of the two, whooshing instead through the gap created between them. At once, Seabreeze hit the leaves and flapped. Both blinded guards grunted and clutched at the leaves in their eyes, but then the Breezie slipped between two other bodies and lost himself to the crowd.

A Charity Pony stepped out in front of him.

"A Breezie!" It cried out, rearing up out of surprise. "Another Breezie is attacking!"

The wand swung round, throwing off sparkles like embers from a torch. Seabreeze ducked, felt the shot rush over his wings, and was surprised to hear the squeal of the guard that had been sneaking up behind him. Not daring to look back, Seabreeze flapped and rose over the melee, right into a Viler Spirit.

Both of them bounced off each other with an "oof". Stones flew over his head, and one struck his wing, spinning him up and over, squealing. Barely thinking, he landed on the head of what in his fear-soaked excitement turned out to be a Flutter Pony.

"Sorry!" he yelled out, leaping onto the nearest exposed moss and slipping between the tussling bodies. A One from the Otherworld drifted through the melee, totally unconcerned. At once, he stopped with a frantic series of flaps. The heavenly choir, the silvery mist blooming all around it, the strong scent of fermenting apples…

He could hear the buzzing of the guards behind him. _Perhaps if my wings are big enough to obscure the view… It would only need a second._ Seabreeze changed course and, wings splayed, ran straight through the One.

He glanced back in time to see the guards skid to a halt. None of them had expected a fey to loom out of nowhere. When they blinked and realized it was a One, most of the squad squealed and rolled backwards in fright. The leader, however, quickly got over his shock and charged right through, closing in, almost stretching his tusks for the Breezie's flapping tail.

Heaps of moss rose up and smothered the face. Instantly, it was lost to the shifting crowd.

Up ahead was Zephyrine, still cradling Saltshaker and lying low amid the tussling bodies. Relief swept through him. He surged forwards, cried out her name, tackled her midriff –

– and suddenly found himself gripping a spider.

Hairy legs twitched around him, and its warm fur tickled his stomach. Seabreeze opened his mouth to scream.

Someone knocked into him. Briefly, he pressed forwards and the spider shimmered. Grey lines of light appeared like ripples where his legs were tightened.

"_Zephyrine?_" he said.

Then she disappeared behind the spider – no, behind the _illusion_ of a spider – and the image shifted. Now he was gripping a small porcupine. It shifted again; a wet catfish slithered and thrashed its tail at him, but he'd seen the flicker of lights and now he clung on tighter.

"If you can hear me in there," he shouted, "I am not letting go!"

Just before the next flash, he saw past the tangle of scales and legs to the concentrated frown of an Enchanter. It was muttering under its breath. Behind it, a trail of water led back to the nearby puddle.

"Over there!" Seabreeze clung tightly to the cobra and pointed behind its back, but the thing felt his limbs move over it and followed his gaze.

The cobra barely allowed the Enchanter to gape in surprise before an errant tail lashed out. There was a yelp and a splash. One top hat floated on the surface of the puddle.

Zephyrine emerged from the vanishing cobra illusion, beaming at him.

All around them, the crowd groaned and yelped, flashes and blurs broke through the all-pervading silvery mist that the Ones were summoning, and blasts of heat and cold washed over their wings. Both Breezies sighed. Now, the whole thing was a long way away, nothing but an echo beyond the distant hills.

Her lips parted. "You big daftie."

Seabreeze was suddenly thrown back into the present. "What? _What?_"

"Fancy you rushing in here just to get little old me," she said, but her eyes were still shining. "We're fine, you silly. We can take care of ourselves." She peered down at the bundle tucked tightly under her forelegs. "Isn't daddy-waddy a silly? Yes 'e is. Yes 'e is."

"A _silly?_" He realized the flames hadn't entirely gone inside him. "You ungrateful tease! Do you know how many times I was nearly brained just now?"

"And that's very brave and sweet of you, but I didn't need your help. I knocked out a Brown Foal just now. Besides, now what are you gonna do? Because I'm not running."

"Not running? You are madder than those Flutter Ponies! The plan did not work, and I am trying not to lose my head in all this, and there are only the five of us left, and the fey did not listen to Tailblade, and_ you are not running?_"

"You're the Last Minuter. I thought you'd understand. We've got to do something now to stop this!"

Gently, pressing Saltshaker between himself and her chest, he squeezed her a little harder. Something had just clicked in his brain. _Of course,_ he thought. _It is so obvious…_

"We have got to do something? You mean moping Hugglenut and snobby Piffle? No. _I_ am the Big Breezie," he said, mustering up as much hauteur as a tiny body could hold. "You want this thing stopped? You got it."

Hastily, he pecked her on the cheek and then threw himself back into the fray.

A row of Alux raised their spears, but he angrily swatted the points aside and grabbed the frontmost one by the shoulders. He yanked the victim closer, watching as the face tried to crawl back and hide behind the neck.

"We are a proud warrior species!" it said through sheer terrified bravado.

"Is that so? Thank you for telling me! I had not noticed!" Seabreeze almost headbutted the unfortunate Alux. "I am a Breezie! This is MY land, and I will NOT have any fighting on it without my leave! Got it?"

"Get down!" The other warriors ducked.

Seabreeze spotted it just in time and went down so fast that his captive knocked chin against ground. Stones pelted the fey behind him.

Immediately, he scuttled over the cowering Alux and seized the slowest of the Chaneques in a headlock. He ignored the gurgling that followed.

"Get me to the podium," he said in a whisper like an ice pick through the ear, "or when I have finished with you, my friend, you will be lucky if you can pick up a grain of sand afterwards!"

The creature garbled at him in its own language, but the tone spat and sneered. Buzzing guards closed in on all sides. Claws raked through the air.

Seabreeze ducked round and pushed. Seized and hauled into the air by the swarm, the Chaneque writhed and screamed. Earth beings did not like leaving the ground, and a guard that's faced one too many stones to the face is not inclined to earthy sympathy.

Flames wiped past; the Curupira galloped back and forth, leaving crisscrossing tracks with cloven hoofprints. One shot past, squealing with the joy of the hunt.

_The Grand High Curupira! Only he would leave the most senior ambassadors behind!_

All the tracks pointed the wrong way. He knew that. In the old days, or so it was told, the Curupira used to mislead meat-eaters and hunters with their backward-facing hooves. That trick wouldn't work on a Breezie.

_Let us see. The clefts are all on the right of the hoofprints, so the track came from the right._ Keeping low, he held his breath and flattened his wings and hoped beyond hope that his luck did not run out.

All the mist vanished under a massive gust that snatched him up. Seabreeze squealed and almost flew backwards. Even holding on to the ground, his hooves left inch-long grooves in the moss. While the fire still lasted in him, he strained his neck muscles against the gale, squinting, and looked up.

A Viler Spirit loomed over him.

Except it wasn't the idle drifter of before. It took a lot to upset a Viler Spirit, but when it happened, it happened on a grand scale. All the irritations and exasperations and sheer petty outrages that filtered daily through normal lives were saved up and stored up and dammed up by the easy-going spirits until everything exploded.

Lightning sparks crisscrossed its halo of spinning clouds. Wind whipped about its locks. Fangs gnashed and claws slid out of the ends of its feet, and what had been white and pure became a gleaming silver like air made from metal. Wide blue eyes became black holes, which collapsed into slits.

The mist cleared around it. Members of the court stood in awe behind the whipping winds. There too was the podium, now empty; he looked, and Tailblade was trussed up on the ground by bindweed, caught under the clawed feet of Dragon Lily.

Lady Guardia pointed a shaking hoof. "A Breezie!"

On either side of her, the Empress of Alux and the Enchanter of the River crouched, ready to jump. One of each species were present, and stood to attention. The only exceptions were the Grand High Curupira, and –

Seabreeze rose to his hooves, wincing against the gale of the Viler Spirit. "Ambassador! Jelly Salve Jar! I am Seabreeze! Do not be angry! I understand about being angry! When all I have are fools and losers and Breezies who only seem to think about themselves, I get angry too! But I do not mean it! I am angry because I am worried, and I am worried because I want what is best and I cannot always get it!"

He noticed a nasty lump throbbing on the creature's temple. Instantly, his gaze pinned down the Chaneque ambassador, who smiled weakly and tried to shuffle behind Bromeliad.

Yet the Viler Spirit remained beautiful and terrible, morphing the world around her into a hurricane.

A hoof landed on his shoulder. "Perhaps I can help?"

Seabreeze almost squeaked. "Piffle! What are you doing here!?"

"Learning some interesting things about Breezies, I must say. Although I think a lesson on translating would be timely." The old Breezie winked. "I _am_ a traveller and a scholar. Ahem…"

Piffle frowned in concentration and began gabbling. Not that Seabreeze recognized the language, but the tone was smooth and fluid. One by one, the ambassadors relaxed. Some of them gabbled back, but Piffle shook his head and continued.

All heads checked the storm overhead. The winds died down.

"It is working," murmured Seabreeze. "I think it is working."

No one was fighting now. Even the Flutter Ponies, some in headlocks or peeking out from under dogpiles, clicked their tusks and glanced about for an escape.

Slowly but surely, the storm shrank back. Lightning sparks shattered into tiny flickers of light which died away. Its locks settled over its neck and face. Sharp teeth sank back into square incisors. Whiteness bloomed over its body until it flowed over the slits and let the eyes brighten.

Jelly Salve Jar smiled again. Every fey present breathed out.

With a squeak, Dragon Lily fell face-first into the dirt. Hugglenut held on grimly, and nodded up at the two Breezies.

"Trial's not over yet," they heard him mutter.

Yet the Vox was as tough as teak, and a rage rushed through her in a spasm. Hugglenut groaned and flew backwards, right into the puddle. The buzzing wings of the approaching guards drowned out the splash.

Chief Sun Crow stepped forwards, and a Jogger hopped over to his side. A small smile crept over his face. When he held up a hoof, the guards stopped and then landed, and the buzzing died away.

"Ah," he said in perfect Breezie, "so you are the Last Minuter I have heard so much about."

Seabreeze gaped at him. "You can speak our language?"

The Jogger beside him translated for the court, but Chief Sun Crow shook his craggy shoulders. "Your friend there once visited our tribe in the caves of the hillock range. Knowledge and learning are the food and drink of the Joggers. We fed him, and in turn he fed us."

Piffle bowed his head and lowered his wings, presumably to signal respect. "You treated me with more hospitality than I deserved, Chief, though I am very grateful nonetheless."

"And you, in turn, opened our eyes to a world we never believed existed. We do not forget your kindness and knowledge. Up until then, we barely travelled and never cared much for the other tribes, even in the court."

By now, Seabreeze's head was going back and forth so much it was in danger of unscrewing itself. Neither side seemed remotely interested in explaining things to him.

He made a decision. "Let us focus on the here and now, please?"

More translators crowded around the two Breezies and the ambassadors. More of the regular crowd pressed in behind them. Over by the puddle, Dragon Lily removed her feet from Tailblade's binding, and both Flutter Ponies frowned at him.

Seabreeze had never been the focus of so many stares before. He coughed, trying to ignore the weight of all those eyes turned on his pin-sized head. Flames flickered inside his chest.

"Uh…" he said.

_What do I say now? I cannot tell them to get off my land. We will simply end up fighting. I cannot tell them to stay: this whole thing stinks of something rotten and foul and wrong, and there are my Zephyrine and my Saltshaker, with those guards standing all around them…_

Some of the stares were turning into glowers. Only one or two had smiles for company, and the one the Enchanter gave him had all the friendliness of ice on a blade.

The embers of his confidence waned. Deep within his mind, the image of a pony shimmered like a reflection on running water.

"You see…" He tried again. Behind the crouch of Dragon Lily, Hugglenut pulled himself out of the puddle, groaning as he slopped water over the moss.

He had to hold on to the fire in his chest. It gave him power. Any moment now, he was on the verge of screaming and cowering, and he was getting sick of doing that. His whole species did that. They were famous for it. His legs were shaking.

The reflection calmed. Looking back at him was a pegasus.

This time, his mind stood back and let the flame die away._ Nice, but firm._

"Once upon a time," he said, and as he spoke, his voice became calm and soft as a breeze, "there were the twelve tribes of the fey. After the Fey Ponies and the Grey created them and then vanished from the world, the fey tribes began to worry, because they did not know how to take care of themselves."

"We know this story," said Chief Sun Crow, waving the words aside.

Piffle shushed him gently. "I didn't get around to telling _everybody_ I met. And the same story can mean different things in different places. Listen."

"The Fey Ponies only left them five pieces of an ancient game they used to play, and each piece had a different symbol for a different part of the world. The pieces were fire, earth, forest, water, and air. When the world began to fall apart, the twelve tribes came together and created the first court, so that they could decide peacefully how to divide the responsibilities amongst themselves."

One by one, the glowers melted. Blank faces waited for the translators to catch up, and one or two evaporated, leaving smiles and knowing grins.

"The first tribe was passionate and loved life, so before anyone else could choose it, they snatched up the first piece and became the guardians of the fire. Those were the ancestors of the Flutter Ponies. Three of the tribes chose the second piece, and became guardians of the earth. Three more chose the third piece, and became guardians of the forest."

The Empress of Alux sat down politely, followed by Bromeliad and Chief Sun Crow. Among the gathered fey, many others did the same. Seabreeze glanced about, and found Zephyrine waving at him with a cheesy grin.

"Uh… finally, four of the tribes accepted the air piece, and the last tribe took the water piece in bad grace. _They_ have caused mischief ever since…"

Under his top hat, the ambassador for the Enchanters indulged himself with a smug grin.

"It had been a peaceful meeting, but not a happy one. In secret, envy and resentment consumed each of the tribes, for they believed the pieces should have been theirs and theirs alone. All the sides were convinced that the only way to get everything they wanted was to overthrow all the others and seize the pieces for themselves."

By now, all the ambassadors had seated themselves on the moss – the Chaneque only after Lady Guardia elbowed him – and a few of the smarter spectators were filling in the blanks. Traditionally, each tribe had always inserted itself into the story as the heroic tribe that stopped the war. Seabreeze opened his mouth, and then stopped.

_Why not? Was that not the plan in the first place?_

He took a deep breath. "The Breezies held the air piece on behalf of their three allies, but the leader of the Breezies hatched a cunning plan. The leader broke the rules and went into the sacred resting place of the Fey Ponies. And there" – he began to shout, as the tumult rose up against his reimagining of the tale and the translators frowned at their own words – "he found the magical armour, and he broke more rules, and brought out the suits."

Dragon Lily shouted something and pointed at him, but no one else paid her any mind.

"He used bindweed and twigs to move the armour. During the second meeting of the court, a strange and terrible army appeared outside. They went to see, and were frightened, because they saw the Fey Ponies returning, and they feared their secret evil thoughts would be found out. So the leader of the Breezies stepped forwards, and pretended to be weak and helpless."

A dozen Flutter Ponies stepped out from the circle of bystanders. To their shock, Tailblade barked an order at them. Every leg stopped in mid-stride.

Both Dragon Lily and Tailblade barked orders, each trying to drown out the other. Even the crowd stopped to watch. None of the Flutter Ponies moved. Their foreheads glazed with sweat.

Seabreeze licked his dry lips. "The twelve tribes sought to look good before the Fey Ponies, and the Breezies were pushovers. All the pieces had to be passed on to a weak and feeble target, one that could be bullied into obeying but one that could draw the wrath of the Fey Ponies away from the others. The Breezies played along, and soon controlled all five pieces. It was the greatest trick ever pulled."

Piffle's jaw stiffened, but his wasn't the only one. Silence fell over the crowd. Each of the ambassadors whispered to their neighbours. Only the translators echoed across the clearing, and the distant crashing of the waterfalls framed rather than countered the quietude.

Seabreeze tried a weak smile. "My tribe has made mistakes. We were not kind, and we did not think about what the rest of you were feeling or about what you wanted. But I am one of the Last Minuters, and I met a pony in the Big World who taught me not to lash out. She also taught me" – he added, for the revelation was dawning on him as he spoke – "that being kind could make you cruel, and being cruel could make you kind. It is a lot more complicated than you might think."

Here, he stretched to a beaming grin and aimed it at the two Flutter Ponies. After a while, Tailblade nodded once, while Dragon Lily's frown narrowed in confusion. Then, he softened his expression into what he hoped was one of remorse, and kneeled down before the line of astonished ambassadors.

"For all Breezies," he said, "I am sorry. If it pleases the court, then I say I am guilty. I wish we could start over, but it is not up to me anymore. I am at your mercy."

Stumbling, sweating, and fidgeting, the translators stopped.

The rest of the Flutter Ponies waited until the ambassadors had stopped whispering, and then clicked and chattered at the air. Altogether, they turned to face the Vox.

Dragon Lily pointed at him. She barked an order.

None of them moved. He could imagine what was going through their minds. When a campaign rests on the idea of the enemy being smug and beyond all reason, the sight of said enemy throwing himself at their feet and agreeing with them was not going to get the blood pumping. In any case, their idea of Breezies was already ripping at the seams.

As one, the ambassadors nodded. Chief Sun Crow listened to their spiels one at a time, and nodded.

"The ambassadors have heard your case," he said gravely, "and the court has made its judgement."

Flutter Pony guards crawled around the backs of the crowd, converging on the puddle. Five of them stood behind Dragon Lily, who buzzed her wings impatiently.

Chief Sun Crow smiled. "The verdict is: Guilty."

Dragon Lily smirked and waved at her gathering guards, but then the Empress shushed her. All the guards hung back.

Chief Sun Crow barely suppressed the laughter when he added, "Yes! Everyone is guilty! Everyone here!"

Puzzled looks ran around the circle. From somewhere within, Seabreeze heard his partner giggle and his baby start wailing through sheer boredom.

"What fools we have been! The ambassadors agree – _largely_ agree," said the Chief, and here the Enchanter coughed and lowered his brim and looked away – "that the tribes have not been sensible about this. We are indeed guilty of harbouring secret, evil, envious thoughts. And for this heinous crime…"

Most of the Joggers in the audience burst into laughter.

"For this heinous crime," continued the Chief with a laugh in his voice, "we are _all_ sentenced to go back and try again!"

It was just as well Seabreeze was kneeling down, for his legs went numb. Piffle slapped him on the back, and the chatter rose up again, and he felt the heat of a hundred strangers all trying to crowd around him. He barely had enough time to hear the screech of rage, and he barely had enough strength to see Dragon Lily surge towards him, stinger extended –

Tailblade hissed something. The Flutter Ponies closed in, and at once Dragon Lily was lost to a ball of yellow and black. Some broke off and pulled the bindweed off of Tailblade. Then, they were lost to the mass of legs and feelers and hair crushing him.


	14. Returning to Paradise

Over the beach of the griffon kingdom, Twirly fluttered and bumped into those nearest her. Balloons bulged and sagged from her waist. Sparkles flickered over the stretched surface. Sometimes, the slight breeze rubbed against them, and then the water inside sloshed.

The long line of Breezies trailed behind her. She glanced back to the distant hills, where a team of griffons beat their wings gently. From those beats, the breeze flowed along the caravan of tiny bodies, lifting them by their gigantic wings. Waves lapped underneath her. A crab stopped probing a patch of slumped seaweed to watch.

She sighed. Even by Breezie standards, it had been a boring trip. The secret spring had posed no real challenge, and the Equestrian Society for the Preservation of Rare Creatures had produced the usual crowd of gawkers and photographers. There hadn't even been any flash.

Now, the cave loomed on the horizon, and she could see a crowd pooling around it. Twirly hummed out of interest.

"Why is there a holdup?" she said to no one in particular. "The portal doesn't close for another two days."

Gasps and shocked yelps ran through the crowd, followed immediately by chatter. She looked down at the beach in an attempt to spot the problem.

From the shoreline, the Enchanters of the River smiled and waved.

"What?" she shrieked. "A breach?"

Further along, a group of Chaneques lobbed stones at each other. In the shadow of the cave, a mist drifted past and the Ones from the Otherworld floated and beamed side-by-side with the Viler Spirits, who sometimes woke up and clapped feebly for the Breezies. Half-hidden among the crags of the cave's mouth, the Joggers and the Brown Foals set up tiny blankets and toy set cutlery for a picnic overlooking the beach.

"Oh no!" Twirly moaned and held her head in her hooves. "This is terrible! They're all going to get into so much trouble!"

Finally, the portal shimmered before her. She and her nearest neighbours went through, biting their forelegs, their eyes wide.

Into the light, over the small bushes, and on the threshold of the pond, she shuddered and rubbed her forelegs together and hoped she was going to see the village still standing. What she did see left her gaping. Squeaks of surprise erupted around her.

The palace was there, surrounded by the birdhouse homes, but Flutter Ponies swarmed around its base, picking off the last of the yellow crust. Below her, the pond rippled and splashed with fey creatures of all kinds. Watching from the banks were the Nymphs, giggling and whispering to each other. Twirly looked to the orange and pink sky, where Charity Ponies floated and argued with Breezies.

A spear prodded her in the chest. Five Alux stood in a line before her.

"Dawdle do not," said one near the front, creasing his face around the unfamiliar Breezie words. "New arrival should go to Empress."

Since the other Breezie arrivals couldn't stop gaping, Twirly forced herself to take the initiative. "What is this?"

"Border control," said the Alux smugly. "Go on, go on with you. Empress over there."

He pointed with his spear. Gingerly, she nodded and drifted across the pond. Another Alux – wearing the headdress of the Empress – barked orders at someone, and the fallen toadstool house rose up from where it had crushed the nearby tiny trees. Trident Rhinoceros Beetles hoisted it in their horns. A team of bindweed-holding Flutter Ponies and Viler Spirits pulled, and the house swung upright with a crack of its windows.

Twirly coughed politely. "Um…"

"New arrivals!" A Flutter Pony stepped forwards, said something to the Empress, and then translated: "Hello! My name is Burningrose! I am very happy to meet you!"

For some reason, his smile was a bit too strained, as though he were trying to impress everyone with how wide it could be. Twirly noticed the Empress glare at him.

"_What?_" was all she could think to say.

"Ah! I see you have the enchanted water ready! Good! At the moment, we are holding it on the surface. Everyone should have a chance to look at it! Please, over here for you!"

One of the Charity Ponies landed, and the wand next to her waved and twirled and aimed at the balloonfuls of water. Twirly gasped as the bulging sacks rose from her sides and drifted after the retreating figure. Laden Breezies around her met other Charity Ponies. Flutter Pony larvae closed in on all sides, staring and chattering.

"I am here to help!" said Burningrose at her elbow. "If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask!" His eyes were reddening.

Twirly opened her mouth. She was struggling to think of anything to say, and that wasn't just because one of the larvae was headbutting her dangling legs.

Finally she spoke: "What's Seabreeze done _now?_"

* * *

Seabreeze groaned and massaged his forehead. The idea had sounded much better in his head a few hours ago.

"They're not going to like it," said Chief Sun Crow stoutly. Behind the Jogger, Piffle nodded vigorously.

"But it is a legend! It is not meant to be taken literally! There is no curse on this armour!"

"I told you this would happen," snapped Piffle. "You ought to have never meddled with the things. And it's not about curses. It's… Well, it's desecration! It's grave-robbing! Take the darn thing off now!"

Seabreeze fumed. Every fey species he'd met had been swept up by the chance of getting a look at the ingredients in the vaults, so much so that the very air crackled with excitement. Some of them even listened to the Breezie tour guides trying to explain things to them. Another daring gesture would have been icing on the cake, and then there was the historical symbolism…

Grumpily, he shook and twisted and managed to get his hoof stuck in the leg armour.

"Um," he said. "Could I have a little help, please?"

Piffle was still giving him an "I told you so" grimace, but the old Breezie stepped forwards and fiddled with the straps and links. Chief Sun Crow tried not to chortle, but his shoulders shook and his mouth fought to stay closed.

Black and white plates clattered on the tiles when Seabreeze flexed his wings and rose free. Around the corridor of the palace, the clatter echoed as though an army was disrobing.

"I only thought it would make a good new uniform," he said, rubbing his aching forelimbs. "Something everyone could wear to mark the occasion."

"It'll only make them angry." Piffle swept up the plates with his hooves and flapped his wings, trying to hold the armour without actually profaning it with his touch. A lot of rattling and wincing ensued. "Look, I know your intentions were good, but let's not push our luck today, yes?"

"Let's go in, now," said the Chief. They both watched until Piffle disappeared round the corner, and then they pushed through the double doors to the main chamber.

Seabreeze was just happy it wasn't covered in Flutter Pony gunk anymore. The faces of the painted Fey Ponies beamed down at them from the ceiling. A semi-circle of thrones stood facing two figures in the centre, one Curupira, one Flutter Pony. He took his place on a wooden throne at the end, and found himself sitting next to Lady Guardia, who rewarded him with a genteel smile.

The first figure was speaking and throwing his legs around in wild gestures. When Seabreeze focused, he could see it was no ordinary Curupira, but the Grand High Curupira himself. Chief Sun Crow signalled to a Nymph servant standing to attention, who nodded to them both and began translating.

"So you see," she translated, and the Grand High Curupira briefly glanced in her direction before continuing, "my kind will not be returning to this world before the Ring Portal closes."

"Preposterous!" Mudstick of the Brown Foals stood up and began stamping hard where he stood. "This is a reckless choice. Walking out onto the Big World terrain is one thing, but to try and _live_ there is to court death! Even the Breezies with their magic cannot go without a guide on the other side!"

"Perhaps…" The Grand High Curupira glanced in Seabreeze's direction, winked, and the Nymph translator continued; "But then again, perhaps not. Today is not just about clearing up any mistakes. We want to go out and find out for ourselves."

Beside the Grand High Curupira, the Flutter Pony shook his wings and flexed his tusks. Jelly Salve Jar, who was floating above her throne with a look of dreamy unconcern, snorted and woke up. The head of the Chaneques tossed a stone idly from one leg to another.

"I say let him do so," purred the Enchanter. "Why not? Be it on his own head, and all that. Besides, my boys are working on a way to… get around the travel difficulties."

"We know," said Lady Guardia coldly. "Your kind do nothing else."

"Lady Guardia! You wound me! Can a humble river spirit be blamed for having big dreams? This is the first time in centuries we've finally seen the ocean of myth and legend. It is not a fairy story. It is real. It is everything we could have hoped for! Now, you ask my kind to wait a year before we ever see it again. Such cruelty from such a generous spirit!"

"Ha! So speaks the great trickster! And what were your plans were you to come across any female creatures? Will you be trusted enough to refrain from any illusions and enchantments? The Curupira I can sympathize with, but your mischievous kind need a constant watch!"

After a while, Seabreeze noticed his translator was sweating under the barrage of languages. When the Flutter Pony started speaking in his native tongue, she gave up completely and fixed Seabreeze with a pleading look.

"That is good work," he said, smiling. "I am fine for now. This has been enough."

Sighing gratefully, she rushed a curtsy and scuttled back to her post behind Bromeliad, who was chatting to another of her Nymph servants. He heard the gentle steps of Breezie hooves behind him, and turned to meet Hugglenut and Milktears crouching as though about to bolt.

"Hello, you two," he said at once.

"Hello, Seabreeze. How is it going?" said Milktears, straightening up.

Seabreeze noticed the two of them were standing an inch apart from each other. To a Breezie, that was enough for two more. Her eyes wobbled. She always looked to him like she was about to burst into sobs.

"Everywhere and nowhere at the same time," he said. "How are you? I remember I saw you and Jingo Belle charge, and the next moment –"

"She is _fine_, thank you." Hugglenut's words were soft, but his flinty gaze smacked into his speech like a brick. Seabreeze gave a weak smile before he clamped his mouth shut.

"Sorry." He glanced at the Flutter Pony speaking, who was utterly still and poised next to the Grand High Curupira. "I did not think you two were –"

"We'll be fine," said Milktears. The pair gave him brave smiles. "Just a difference of opinion."

"Yes," said Hugglenut grimly. "Just a difference. We'll work it out."

Seabreeze tried not to think about it. Everyone had been talking about how the two were made for each other. Perhaps they were going to decide for themselves now. _Not my concern,_ he thought frantically.

Instead, he coughed and said, "So everyone is fine, too? All the captured Breezies are feeling better?"

"Oh yes." Milktears nodded eagerly, and this time their smiles were genuine. "No one was seriously hurt, and the Flutter Ponies are clearing out before the portal closes."

"It'll be like nothing ever happened." Hugglenut rubbed his front hooves together. "Myself, I can't wait for that. What are they saying now?"

The Flutter Pony and the Grand High Curupira rounded on each other, shouting loudly. Both sides tensed for a lunge. Seabreeze glanced at Chief Sun Crow, who shrugged.

"They're both arguing over the Flutter Ponies' status of lone fire fey," the Jogger said calmly. "It is an old and boring argument. You see, the Curupira always want to be considered the second fire fey species, instead of just another forest one. Everyone knows the story, though, and that is not how it happened. This _is_ the new world, however."

Tusks clicked. The Grand High Curupira squealed. In the semi-circle, both combatants tackled each other and rolled across the floor, amid much buzzing and squealing. All the members of the court stood up or floated higher. Babbling and shouting broke out.

Chief Sun Crow sighed under his breath. "Ah me. Here comes the new world, same as the old one."

* * *

Outside, the orange was fading from the sky. Zephyrine watched as row after row of Flutter Ponies lined up, revved up their wings, and leaped into the sky. Already, a trail was leading from the base of the palace to the hillocks on the horizon.

Beside her, Saltshaker and the larva rolled a stone back and forth. She'd gotten it off a particularly troublesome Chaneque, to whom she had calmly and politely explained the advantages of compassionate concern for others' welfare. He was still hiding nearby, shaking behind a toadstool stalk and ducking back whenever she glanced over.

A Flutter Pony landed on her other side. She didn't need to turn around to know who it was.

"Should I call you 'Vox'?" she said to the dimming light. "Or is it just 'Tailblade' now?"

Another one landed between the two of them. Much chattering and clicking followed. Finally, the translator swung round to face her.

"My master," said the new voice, "would like to be called 'friend' to you."

"Oh?" Zephyrine held the smile back. "And what may I call you who speaks Breezie so well?"

Even beyond the language barrier, the tone of surprise was unmistakeable. After some more chattering, the newcomer said, "My name is Zenith Flare."

There was a confident timbre in the voice, and none of the hesitancy or slow deliberateness of the old translator. Zephyrine looked her up and down at last, but apart from a stance like Dragon Lily's and a curlier mane, the stranger looked just like any other Flutter Pony to her.

"Are you the new Vox, by any chance?" she said.

"Yes. I am replacing the disgraced Dragon Lily and leading my hive back home. There are going to be changes now that I am in control." It wasn't arrogant or boastful. It was just a cold statement of how the future would be shaped.

"Interesting." Zephyrine looked across to the face of Tailblade, which gave her a weak smile. "And yet she is still your master?"

"In a metaphorical sense, yes."

"Oh. I see. What's a metaphorical sense?"

Further chattering ensued. Despite the gurgling of Saltshaker, she was feeling the ache in her ears relax and melt away under the constant drone of the flying creatures. Something headbutted her leg; to her surprise, it was Saltshaker, and the larva was curled up on the stone, clicking at him encouragingly.

"Her name is Dust Dream," said Tailblade through the translator. A pause followed while the new Vox caught up with her master. "She gets on very well with your baby."

"Saltshaker can get on with anything." Realizing how that sounded, she hastily added, "And he can get on with any_one_, of course!"

Tailblade chattered for a moment. Zephyrine tried to spot any emotion in the voice, but it was careful and slow, and in any case much too hissy and spitty for her to tell.

"Of course." The new Vox nodded. "It is important that they both discover themselves. Trying new things will be _our_ way of doing so from now on. Perhaps, in the future, we might send some larvae out here to learn the ways of the Breezies?"

Vox Zenith Flare twitched an antennae over her face, and Zephyrine forced herself to keep still out of the suspicion that this was perfectly normal behaviour for a Flutter Pony. At least, she hoped so.

After Tailblade spoke, the translation resumed.

"My master says you were very brave to come out with her." The translator made the words dull and flat, but there was no mistaking the former Vox's grin. "My master says that makes you an honourary Flutter Pony."

"Please," Zephyrine said, blushing. "I'm a Breezie, through-and-through. I think you have a _lot_ to learn about other species, dear. They're all made up of individuals, for a start."

No one spoke after the translator had stopped. Instead, Tailblade gave a single nod, gaze turned upwards in contemplation. The line of departing Flutter Ponies started to thin, until the river of silhouettes became a shrinking stream. Breezies hovered over their heads and waved them off, though it was possible to see Jingo Belle on the margins, glaring at the line as though trying to make it go away faster.

_I don't blame her,_ thought Zephyrine. _The things we've been through these last few days… I'm going to need a lot of pollen to get through this one._

Aloud, she said, "So what about the old Vox?"

"Dragon Lily?" Both Flutter Ponies exchanged words, and then chuckled. "She has been put back in her place. A mind like hers might be useful, so long as it can be kept on a short leash. She will, of course, be disciplined."

Zephyrine swallowed. "Do I want to ask?"

"It's better you don't know. None of our hive won this game. We will all be disciplined."

"How? I didn't think the court were keen on punishments at the moment. Not when everyone's trying to figure this thing out."

"It'll start with our shame and work up from there. Dragon Lily had her moment, but she ran out of fuel and wind, and that is no good for us. You must understand, Zephyrine, that a fire can die just as easily as it can be fed. Perhaps it is the same with the wind?"

"Hmm." Zephyrine glanced at Saltshaker, who was now trying to pull the stone out from under the larva – _Dust Dream,_ she corrected herself. "I meant what about _you?_ What are you going to do?"

Tailblade sat down. It spooked the Breezie for a moment; up till now, she'd never seen a Flutter Pony sitting. They seemed to have too many legs for it.

Vox Zenith Flare watched the stream of the departing hive dwindle to a trickle of shadows across the vanishing orange. With a buzz, she arced over to the larva and plucked it from the ground in her clawed legs. Dust Dream wailed and writhed, trying to grab Saltshaker's outstretched hoof.

Finally, the sitting Flutter Pony hissed at the ground.

"My master says she is going to find herself," said the Vox. "Her _true_ self. This ordeal has provided a sharp lesson for her. She intends to make it stick. She will travel to learn more about this world. She says we cannot think about exploring another one before then, or what are we but _time_-wasters?"

All around them, the mist rolled in.

Zephyrine flinched at the brightness enveloping her, and when she peeked, she saw Tailblade. Shivers ran down her spine. Heavenly singing flowed through their ears. The Ones from the Otherworld surrounded the old Vox. They were smiling.

Slowly, Tailblade reached a clawed foot up to them, and then stopped, drew it back, and turned around. To Zephyrine's surprise, the Flutter Pony smiled and bowed to her. Low, almost kissing the moss.

Then the Ones closed in. Briefly, the image of a looming apple faded in and out. Then, the world faded back into focus. The night dimmed the serene glow of the mist, which thinned and ebbed away. Tailblade was no longer there.

"Goodness me," said Zephyrine; another chill radiated through her body. "I'll be glad when this is over."

"Then it is," said Vox Zenith Flare. "But I can smell your pheromones. You are not being entirely honest."

Zephyrine looked away quickly. "If you say so."

"No. Don't take my word for it. But what does it matter? What is, is. I have my duties to my hive, as your Big Breezie has to yours. I expect the World Harvest – the _true_ World Harvest – will be a magnificent spectacle under his care. Perhaps more strange stories await those ready to believe them, and this time we will _all_ be there. To hear them as equals for the first time in centuries. Until then, farewell."

With Dust Dream still squealing and wriggling in her grip, the new Vox joined the stragglers and became just another silhouette against the setting light. Saltshaker began to wail, hooves still stretched out for the distant dot of the larva.

"Poor dear." Zephyrine sighed, bent down, and picked him up. "Don't 'oo worry. They'll be back again, sweetums. They'll be back."

Both of them watched the last of the silhouettes vanish over the distant peaks, and the light faded away for good.

_I hope so,_ she thought giddily. A grin stretched across her face. _I haven't had this much fun in ages._

Still, it was a long time before she moved away from the spot in the darkness. Overhead, the stars flared into life.


	15. Hive Versus Hive

That night, there was a draught coming through the shattered window of the toadstool home, but no one paid it any notice. Apart from that minor hiccup, the other fey had done a pretty good job restoring the interior.

Saltshaker snoozed in the corner. Wrapped in his tiny blanket, he occasionally frowned and kicked at some unseen presence, knocking away some of the fabric.

Next to the wall, Seabreeze slouched over the pebble and tapped his hoof impatiently on the card. All but three of the pieces were black, while his own white pieces stood corralled against the left edge. He glanced up at his partner, who was smirking. Both of them lit their antennae in the fading light, and soon the world was just them, two heads bent over a white board.

"All right," he said, "you win. You might as well get your gloating over with."

"Oh," she said in mock surprise. "Do I? What, for the third time in a row?"

"Ha ha." Yet his heart wasn't in it. He glanced out the open window, to where the pink portal was shrinking and would, tomorrow, dim and finally vanish. No more light filtered through now; the Breezie village was dark and silent.

There were only Breezies left in the village at all. Everyone else had disappeared, waiting for the World Harvest proper. It was, for a moment, just like the old days when nothing was going to happen. He sighed and turned back to the board.

"What are you thinking about?" Zephyrine rearranged the pieces for a new game.

He shrugged. "Nothing much. Being nice and not being nice. What the World Harvest is going to be like now. Also, when are you going to clear out the Springtails?"

"Never. After what happened, they're now our good luck charm."

Seabreeze opened his mouth to argue, but then closed it again. _It is not urgent. There is always another season._

"Well, do not let them get _too_ out of control, OK?" he said.

She nodded with a smirk and placed the last piece on the card. While she leaned forwards to plan her opening, Seabreeze fiddled with his sleeve. Thoughts of the next portal opening crowded into his mind, along with the joys and horrors that came with wondering what it'd be like with the other fey species coming along.

"Um…" he said. "I was thinking. Maybe next time the Ring Portal opens… normally, we just bicker and argue and end up drawing straws about it. But I was wondering if this time…"

The thought occurred to him, slotting into place with barely a click: _Sometimes, you have to be cruel to be kind…_

"I am _not_ leaving Saltshaker alone in the house," she said flatly. "He's not coming with us either. You know he gets upset whenever we leave him alone."

"Ha! He was not so upset when he had that Flutter Pony larva with him. Look, we coddle him too much. It is not good for him. He needs to break away from us at some point and stand on his own four hooves."

"He can barely crawl." Still, she pouted out of interest, and then forced it back when she realized it was showing.

_Aha._ "I _mean_ he can stay with one of our friends back here. You did not _really_ think that I wanted to leave him on his own? But he will grow up, and he will have to learn how to be an individual. It is more important now than it ever was."

Zephyrine skewed her jaw and peered down at the pieces opposite. "You think it'll do him some good?"

"He is strong and young and free-spirited. I think it will do him a lot of good. It is not like we will stop loving him, or looking after him, or seeing him grow up into a good Breezie. And we would be together again, just like in the old days when we were strong and young and free-spirited too. When we go into the big fields of Equestria, I can show you all the pretty flowers you used to love."

Both of them stared at the board. Both of them, as one, sighed.

"Ah yes." Zephyrine folded her forelimbs. "I know what you're talking about. Remember when we used to pick those and try to make wreaths in our manes?"

A dreamy smile fluttered across Seabreeze's mouth. "How could I forget? You were so bad that you almost strangled me with a daisy. And do you remember when we almost flew into that porcupine, and I had to pull the quills out of your mushroom pouch?"

Zephyrine flicked her antennae with a hoof. "Ha! That was a good one! I got a better one: the time we tried waltzing our way through the breeze on the way back! I lost all my pollen and half of yours that day."

"Oh yes! The look on your face! I thought you were going to faint when old Piffle found out and started shouting at us! No, there were better ones even than that."

"Like what?"

He paused for dramatic effect, and then leaned forwards and whispered: "_Flying doughnut_."

Even through the heavy blushing that met these words, both of them burst out with laughing, clutched their sides, and almost fell onto the fungal floor. In the corner, Saltshaker snorted and they shut up at once. A few errant giggles broke out when they sheepishly returned to their seats.

"Good times," he said to the board. "So we _will_ do it?"

She folded her front limbs. "Fine. But you're going to find a decent babysitter."

"Yes, I am. You have nothing to worry about."

"You're right. That'll be _your_ job." Quicker than blinking, her hoof shot forwards and the white piece cut across the grid's cells. "Haha!"

_That is more like it! To face the world alone is not for me. But if we could do it together, there would be nothing I could not do._ Seabreeze settled back down to play the game, and an impish smirk flashed across his face. _Sometimes, you have to be kind to be cruel…_

"You know I _let_ you win those three games, Zephyrine?" he said casually.

"If you say so. Let's 'let me' win again then, shall we, Seabreeze?"

Seabreeze puffed up his chest. "_Seabreeze?_ You would call him _Seabreeze?_ He who faced the Flutter Pony hive and tore it down with nothing but his wits and skills? He who braved the curse of the ancient Fey Ponies and the wrath of all their descendants? He who fought and captured and so converted the runaway Vox? He who faced the cruel world and had to drag the Last Minuters back home? Oh no no _no!_"

His hoof shot out. A black blur crossed the board. White bounced across the floor.

"I," he said with a smirk, "am the _Big Breezie_."


End file.
